How my holiday season is going...if you can't tell from the bald spots!

 

 I want to write a quick entry today and link up to SS and IA's TTUT (because I lurve their meme's), but this post is bound to be as chaotic as my life is right now so I'm just going to apologise in advance for the psychobabble I'm going to throw out here.  Lucky for me... THEY have NO RULES! :)  It's been a crazy season here with work, Sweetpea's school stuff (again SENIOR YEAR people), and all the general calamities December brings.  I'm having to remind myself continuously of the REASON FOR THE SEASON!  It's just it's such a crazy time. On that note,11 Shopping days...ELEVEN! That's all I have left.  I hate last minute things, yet here I am.  Christmas is upon us and I have only half the house decorated and still only 5 presents bought. SERIOUSLY!!!  Wait, no make that four... Sweetpea had a funeral to sing at with her Madrigal's choir on Sunday and she didn't want to wear heels, so I caved and gave her the cute black boots I had bought her for Christmas.  (So sad, one of her favorite teachers passed away last week of ovarian cancer, only 32 years old). 
   So far I have the tree up and the living room decorated, I finished the dining room last night, I did only a few small touches in the kitchen.  The Sweetest Guy in the World hung some of the outside lights on the porch last night and put up that tree, he says he has only about 10 more 150 light strands to do-he thinks his last name is Griswald apparently.  So on my to-do list:

1. Make the front door wreath.

2. Make the two wreaths and decorate the garland for the porch.

3. Add the final touches to the wreaths for the bedrooms and the office door.

4. Finish the Christmas shopping.

5. Wrap presents-(how tacky would it be to give everyone but TSGITW and Sweetpea gift cards?)

6. Make the hors d'oeuvres for the Christmas parties on Wed and Fri nights of this week- Also pick up the hostess gifts for these parties...oops!

7. Get started on the Christmas candy making.

All over blogland I keep seeing all of these beautifully decorated spaces, craft projects, awesomely wrapped gifts, and yummy candies and snacks- I have one question...HOW IN THE HELL do ya'll do it all?  I can barely keep up with the few things I'm doing for Christmas this year and still manage to work and keep up with my family!  My list is actually pretty short, comparitively. Oh I'm sure I have lots of other things to add to that list, but quite frankly, I'm boring myself and I hate hearing myself whine.

   On the plus side, I have had alot more fun this holiday season than I have in the past when I thought everything had to be PERFECT!!!  I've made more homemade peppermint cocoa and sat drinking it with the ones I love.  I've seen my Saints win a few times on lazy Sundays.  I've spent more time with my mama.  I got to see my sweet girl and her friends perform in their Madrigal Feast (think Medevial Times, only seasonal, funny, and on a slightly less grand scale). My house may only be half-decorated and the dining room floor may look like Christmas threw up on it until these last projects are completed, but at least the majority of my stress has stayed confined at work.  I wonder if it will be worth it when I'm killing mself to get things ready in my few days off before the BIG DAY?  I'm thinking yes!
   We leave on the 21st to head to Birmingham for an early Christmas with TSGINTW's family.  We'll be back for Christmas Eve dinner with my mom and my lil sis and her hubby, Midnight Mass, then Christmas day with just us, my sweet Mama and Sweetpea, then the day after with my late husband's family, and working in a vivsit with the bestie and her sweetie (who just so happens to be TSGITW's bf).  I love Christmas, I just hate feeling unprepared.  Again, I need to remind myself that this season is about the birth of Christ and family...not all the other stuff that I seem to keep focusing on.
   I'm gearing up for the New Year in the midst of all this chaos.  I don't make resolutions, but I do try to set personal goals to be accomplished within the coming year.  I hope to share those soon. 
    I'm gonna leave you with a few pics from Sweetpea's Madrigal Feast ...my sweet girl works hard on this performance all year.  This is her last Madrigal dinner :( tear! 

SORRY, ya'll...got ready to add the pics and realized these are the only two I have on my puter at work.  Oh well, just like Christmas this year, I'm slacking. Thanks for listening to my crazy rambling, Merry Christmas ya'll.  Just remember :
The spirit of Christmas is not in the presents, but in HIS presence!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING...and I am so not ready!

CRIMINY!!! It's already been 2 weeks since I've posted. I'll say it again, a sad and sorry blogger I am making!  Thanksgiving has come and gone...fabulous and tiring though it was.  We had lots of guests for the holiday and if I WERE a good blogger I would have photos to show you of all my beautiful decor and table settings...but alas, I SUCK!!! I think my sweet Honey's mom or sister in law took a few pics for posterity, but I don't have any!  Oh well... we had a great holiday with LOTS of yummy food  (including a 22lb turkey TSGITW thought we needed).  I don't care if I never SEE another piece of turkey, but unfortunately we still have some in the freezer. That man is gonna make turkey soup. SIGH! After enjoying the holiday and our guests, we cleaned the house back to a recognizable state Thanksgiving night and at 1:30 am I set out to stand in line for a little Black Friday fun.  And I did have fun, but I am so particular that even after staying out til 5 am I only have 5 presents purchased.  No, that was not a typo on my part. I said 5 (five). That's it!  I so have to get my butt in gear. 5 presents and the decorating hasn't really even begun!  I am so far behind...so far I have the dining room about half done and that's all. Nothing else!  I feel like a scrooge. It's not that I don't love Christmas, I DO!!! I am just really busy and tired when I get home and I need a free weekend to get things done, but so far, no such luck. Okay, I will stop with the whining and go off to bed so I can begin again in the morning. Hope your holiday was blessed and hopefully I'll be back sooner this time! :) JENN

I am a sad, sorry blogger!

   Wow! I haven't blogged, or even logged into my blog, since April! I know, sad, pathetic, shows a real lack of motivation...right? Well, that's probably how it looks anyway. Let me see if I can do a quick catchup...bahahahhahaha! Quick...riiiiggghhhhht! I'm Southern ya'll, so grab a glass of tea, sit back and relax, this could take a while.  We Southern girls can get long-winded. I had just (barely) started blogging and life just took over.
   My job went nuts, to begin with.  I work for a Safety training and consulting company, that's fancy speak for a company that trains and drug tests construction workers, ya'll.  Yeah, I know, glamorous... right?  Anyway, we were a relatively new company, but owned by a gentleman with a big name in that industry so when the business took off, it went 90 to nothing!
   The Sweetest Guy in the World and I decided to combine our households, so we set off on an apartment/house search (apartment won by the way...due to the fact that we are staying in my hometown for only a year and then moving to his...we figured an apartment would be a MUCH easier short-term arrangement).  We started the moving process June 1 by moving Sweetpea and I out of our former digs and into the current place and then moved onto his place. NOT as easy as it sounds folks! We are talking THREE (3) WEEKS of moving...yeah FUUUUNNN!!! NOT!  We had 2 FULL households! Two of everything! From livingroom and bedroom furniture, to pots and pans (we kept his because he has a fetish for expensive cookery and his was way nicer than mine lol!), to toilet brushes! And then there was the cleaning of the old apartments, the painting of the new one(what, surely you didn't think I could live with ALL beige walls for a full year!)-just a bit though...2 accent walls and of course the spoiled one had to have her room painted entirely!
   Let's see, then there was the getting ready for school...It's Sweetpea's Senior Year! Then school itself, Friday football (SPs in Guard), Saturday football (USA JAGS-college ball), Sunday football (SAINTS!) and all the usual school stuff X ten! Hellooooo??? Let me say it again...SENIOR YEAR! AAAARRRGGGGGHHH!Now let's add in the fact that my dear sweet Mama had a total knee! And spent several months unable to do much for herself or even drive...so I helped her out with grocery shopping, bill paying, laundry...all the everyday, mundane stuff we all take for granted being able to do...and WHEW! I was one tired chick!
    So, I've really missed blogging and am ready to take it back up and enjoy the fun again. Hopefully, I can get my 2 followers back, lol. I'm gonna leave off with a few pics of our new home and whatnot in completely random order to really catch you up!  I'm so glad to be back!-  JENN

We really like holidays!

 Around here, Homecoming means Junior/Senior war with tping houses...so glad I live in apartment. Here's Sweetpea and friends off to mess up some poor Junior yards-as payback, of course, for cars that got the tp treatment!

 A shot of SP's room (while in progress...will take some new pics and show you how really cute it is)!

 Some random "rock-bandin" the night away!

 SAINTS BABY!!!!

 SP and her Dad on Senior night for the athlete's!

  

It's Friday! That means it's confessial time ya'll!

I CONFESS...

that I haven't blogged since last Friday's confessional.  I know, I suck, but I've been crazy busy!  I had the best Easter weekend with TSGITW, his family, Sweetpea, and my own darling Mama!  I'll try not to bore you with tooooooo many details... I'll just say that there was shopping, wonderful seafood (I went to Huck's for fried crawfish TWICE last weekend), a birthday party and cookout, midnight egg-dying, Easter baskets, a spectacular performance by Sweetpea at our church's Easter service and a very relaxing Sunday... followed by a week of actual work at my job.

I CONFESS...

that I have caught up on work and am now blogging from my desk at work, because I forgot to pay my home internet and,well...still haven't gottten around to doing so.

I CONFESS...
that I only took a half dozen pictures this past weekend and they were all of the midnight egg-dying.

Sweetpea looks adorable, as always, TSGITW and I just look tired...ah youth!

I CONFESS...
that I'm being a bad Mama this weekend and leaving Sweetpea with my Mama to head to New Orleans with TSGITW for his birthday. In my defense, she's a teenager and it's just not as much fun to hang out with your Mama when you're sixteen, so other than the fact that she's ticked at being excluded from a trip to The Big Easy...she's good with it.

I CONFESS...
that I'm boring. Yep, that's all I got for this week. Hopefully I'll get up to some debauchery in New Orleans and have more to share next week. You just never can tell! ;)
Ya'll have a fun weekend!

JENN

Okay, Okay....I CONFESS!!!!!

Okay...having some Mamarazzi fun....Friday Confessional!

I confess...

that I need some  help here...I'm still not sure if I'm doing this whole link thing right, but it's so darn much fun that I had to try anyway.

I confess...

that I am writing this in a towel at TSGITW's computer and that I tried to hack his password before calling him at work to ask for it. I mean, REAAALLLLYYY??, why, oh why is his home computer password protected anyway when he is the only one who lives here (and with a totally random password that I couldn't remember if I tried)...oh well guess that's just one of those computer genius things huh?

I confess...

that after TSGITW left for work this morning, my OCD side came out and I cleaned his kitchen, took out the trash and started a couple of loads of laundry.  I couldn't help myself... his house is usually so neat and put together, but he's been terribly busy at work and sooooooo....well, you know.

I confess...

that my reasons for cleaning his house up a bit weren't totally selfless. I did it partly because it was bugging  me and partly for the gratification from him that I know it will bring. What can I say, I should have been born in the 50's...I'm a stay at home and take care of my family type of girl.  I work due to circumstance, not because I'm a "modern woman" and I like it. I like doing things for my honey and seeing and hearing his appreciation and wonderment.

I confess...

that I am feeling like a totally crappy mother right now. For the first time in Sweetpea's 16 years, it is Good Friday and I haven't done a darn thing for Easter yet. Well, that's not totally true...I did take her to the mall last Saturday and buy her a new dress to wear Sunday ( I have to brag a bit...she's singing the Easter offeratory...I love to hear my baby sing...she's got real talent ya'll). But, I have done nothing, nada, zip, zilch about an Easter basket.  Even though she says she's too old for an Easter basket, ya know she still NEEDS one so I gotta get off my bum and get something done. I am just so not in the mood this year, but I better figure it out or I'm so gonna lose my "Martha Stewart of MS" title, lol

I confess...

 that instead of doing the afore mentioned Easter shopping (and the grocery shopping and the birthday gift shopping for the party for TSGITW's dad and nephew's bday party tomorrow) last night after work I instead hightailed it to AL to spend the evening going out to dinner and for drinks and karaoke with TSGITW, JO, and her darling bf.  I couldn't help it ya'll, Sweetpea was spending the night with a friend and I wanted to see my honey and my bestie. But oh, the guilt!!!

I confess...

that I feel so much better now! Confession really is good for the soul! Happy Easter to my bloggy pals! Hope ya'll have a great weekend!

MUAH!

JENN  

PS....Oh and btw, I confess...

 that I am doing a total no-no and just linking up now and reading and commenting on other confessions later (cause I'm way behind and in a hurry to get my errands done so I can pick up Sweetpea on time), but I promise I will be a good blogger and do it from my blackberry while I'm in line (cause ya know the lines will be long shopping on Good Friday) at the stores. But, Mamarazzi, if you're reading this I really appreciate the fun and I WILL be a good bloggy friend :). 

We Want to Know Wednesday!!!....my first link party...yay me!

FRIENDSHIP

   Okay...so this is my first attempt at a "link party" post...so excited! But first, a great big shout out of THANKS YA'LL!!! to Impulsive Addict and Mamarazzi. They are so sweet and I have already received comments back from both of them after commenting on their blogs. They even helped me to get my email set up to my blog! So, again, THANKS!!!

   My blog today is posted in the color PURPLE because today's theme for WWTK is friendship and my bestie loves purple!!!

   The QUESTIONS (and my answers, of course):



  

{1} Do you make friends easily?
     Um...typically, I would say no...I make acquaintance-type friends quite easily, true friends (you know, the ones that grab hold of your heart and won't let go?) I have a few and I have known them forever. I am one of those love -to -make -new- friends type of people, however. it just takes me a little time to get to that "you are my friend and I trust you implicitly" stage!
{2} What 3 qualities are a MUST in a friend?

     A. HONESTY!!!! Lies will ruin a friendship! BIG lies (ie: "I wasn't kissing your boyfriend, I was telling his lips a secret...so I had to get really close."), little lies (ie: "No, you look great in a bikini...you should totally buy that."...to hear later at the pool..."Wow, check out the fat chick in a bikini"...yeah, not so much loving you then) ALL LIES STINK!!!

   B. SUPPORT!!!

"Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support"...so true. The best friends in life are the ones that you may go long periods of time without talking to (you know, life happens and you drift away) but when you do reconnect it's like you've never been apart.One of those is my dear friend J1 (had to give her a # cuz there's a J2- btw the #'s represent only the order in which I met these 2...so you two if you read this quit speculating!!) Anyway... I've had some serious crap in my life over the past few years. Back in 2009, I lost my husband (D) to a rare form of cancer. J1 and I have been friends since we were 7 years old, but due to life we would lose touch, reconnect, lose touch again, yadayadayada...at this point in our lives, we had physically "seen" one another exactly ONCE in 17 years...but she supported me through this crisis 100%...even driving from TX to attend the funeral! ( I also had major support from J2 and S as well!)

  C.  HUMOR! I must have laughter in my life...I love the fact that my friends can say some random something and have me literally laughing out loud! Sometimes, I will think back on a convo I had days before with one of them and find myself giggling! I try to do this quietly or else I get strange looks from the people who aren't in on the joke. Plus, they must "humor" me and sometimes that probably puts a strain on my friendships.
{3} What makes YOU a good friend?
     Wow! That's a hard one...I guess the fact that I truly love and care about my friends makes me a good friend. Each of my close friends is family to me. I try to be a good friend and be there for them when they need me, even if all I can do is give them my undivided attention and listen to their woes.
{4} Have you ever met a bloggy friend in real life? Yes? Tell us about the meet up. No? Who would you love to meet?
     Nope...I'm new to "blog-world" so I haven't really gotten to know anyone yet, but based on the blogs I've perused (stalked :) ) and the people I've "talked" to thru e-mail...I'd have to go with Impulsive Addict...she's so sweet and helpful and besides, she looks like she's having so much fun in her pics I want to grab my bestie and head over her way for drinks!
{5} Who is your best friend? Tell us about them.
     Okay, now I know this is a long post and you're bored, but this girl is the BOMB so please read on! J2 (henceforth referred to as JO) has been my bestie for 23 years now. JO and I have been inseperable during this time (well except for that year during/after high school when we refused to speak to one another, but I don't like to think about that time in my life without her...it's just sad...not to mention STUPID since to this day neither of can remember WHY we quit speaking, lol). We have been thru high school (with stupid snotty people we didn't like or who didn't like us because we were snotty, but NEVER stupid), the births of our children, losing husbands ( thru divorce or death)," men that need killin", raising teenagers (okay, still going thru that one), and numerous bottles of wine (to make it thru all of the afore-mentioned things. She is a much better friend than I am, yet she still keeps me around. She not only helped plan my wedding (when I decided not to have a big wedding and instead to plan a wedding with 30 to 40 guests at a friend's home in 2 weeks), she spent 6 hours decorating for it and then showered and dressed in 20 minutes before helping me get ready.  JO was my staunch supporter while my husband was ill, during his death and afterward. This girl took almost A MONTH off of work during his last days and following his death. She drove from her home in FL to MS to Tulane Hospital in New Orleans, LA over and over and over. She took care of my daughter, she brought my Mama to the hospital, she did things for me and D that most members of my family wouldn't do. She literally stayed by my side throughout the entire process. She listened to me cry, withstood my rants and general bitchiness, and even chewed me out and gave "tough love" when I needed it! JO is my daughter's favorite "aunty" and spoils her rotten (I mean how many 16-year olds get Mikimoto pearls and the matching earrings for Christmas...and from a non-blood relation no less?). And to top it all off, she introduced me to "The Sweetest Guy in the World"!!! for which I will be ever grateful.(don't get me wrong, she's not totally selfless...she's demanding recommpence from TSGITW for introducing him to ME -all she wants is a little ole pair of Christian Louboutins) ( and btw JO I am working on him...don't worry, one day you'll get your Louboutins). All in all, she is the very best friend a girl could hope for and she's mine....she's the sister of my heart and I love her!

GOD made us friends because HE knew no Mom could handle us as sisters!

Blogging, REALLY???

I know, I know...blogging??? In my defense, I really enjoyed myspace blogging, but once everyone moved their social networking to facebook I had to go along to keep up with all the gossip, um I mean to keep up with what's going on in my friends' lives. My life is really mundane, so I do have to wonder who is going to read all of this drivel I write, but I must confess I follow the blogs of several people I've never met so I feel inspired. Now I want my own little spot in the lime light, so here we are.
   Okay, well I guess we'll start with the title of this blog...yes, I know it's a pretty popular country song. Yes, I know it sounds rather snotty. And it is...it's me...being slighty snotty...as usual...anyone here who actually knows me will not be surprised (so let's not pretend...it's okay if you think that, it is true after all ). The title is in reference to being a southern woman...it's how we think ya'll (we're just like you...only prettier). If you're a southern woman, just go ahead and admit to it. You'll feel better, trust me.
   Now, as to what will be happening on this blog? Who knows? Whatever strikes my fancy, I suppose. The inspiration to blog came from me being bored and discovering the fabulous world of "blog-stalking"...I happened across this lovely little blog : http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/about-elsie.html , which led me to this one: http://racheldenbow.blogspot.com/ , which I think led to this one: http://rosyredbuttons.blogspot.com/ , and that one somehow led me to my favorites: http://seriously-shawn.blogspot.com/ and http://www.ourdandelionwishes.com/ and the women from the last two have these awesome little link parties and their blogs are so much fun, I want to join! I know, I know, that sounded pathetic. I do have real,live friends though. They're just not always around when I'm bored, so I'm loving this peek into other people's lives. Yes, I know I'm a stalker, but it's okay...apparently blog-stalking is okay. Heck on some blogs it appears to be encouraged!
   Well, guess it's time for me to do some "actual" work, you know, the kind they pay me for. I think I'm really going to like this, providing I end up with a few readers that is. Ya'll have a good day!

                                                                                                                       JENN