13 More Days!

That's the number of days left until the start of Big Brother 10! BB has always been one of my guilty pleasures. When it's on, I make sure I never miss an episode...I even plan my nights around it! 

My obsession with Big Brother started during the fourth season, which aired in 2003. I had just moved to a new school and had several years worth of unpacking to do. I would go to school in the late afternoon, when it was the coolest, and work until about 11:00pm. One night, I was looking for some background noise, because an almost empty school can be kinda creepy at night. I happened to come across Big Brother 4. I immediately got sucked into all the drama! 

So, I only have 13 more days until the start of a new Big Brother, and I can't wait for it to begin! July 13th...mark it on your calendar!

A Few More Days

Well, my dad is still in the hospital. He spoke with three doctors today - His cardiologist, a pulmonologist, and his family doctor. They still don't know what is causing the problems he is having, but they want to continue to run more tests.  

Marc and I went to the hospital today to see how he was doing and to take him some DVDs. He seemed to be doing much better and didn't look as pale. He has been taking breathing treatments using a nebulizer, to see if that will open his lungs. His glucose levels are also still extremely high, 284 when we were there, even though they are giving him insulin shots. Normal ranges from about 70 to 110. According to one of the nurses, part of that could be caused by stress from being in the hospital. He is definitely ready to go home!

A Rough Week

On Wednesday when I got home from church, I found out that my father had been taken to the emergency room. Apparently, he had been feeling pretty bad for a few days and had some dizzy spells that made him weak. So, my mother took him to his cardiologist, and Daddy was sent to the hospital.

The doctors ordered an EKG which came out normal. Yesterday, he had a cath done, and it also came out really good. In fact, his heart looked exactly like it did eight years ago when he had his second bypass surgery. We really thought that he was going to be sent home last night or today at the latest.

When his cardiologist came to check on him last night, though, he had other plans. Since my dad had knee surgery about a month ago, the doctor thought there was a possibility that he might have a blood clot in his lung. So, during the night, they ran some tests on his lungs to check them. Thank goodness, everything came out clear.

Daddy is still in the hospital today and probably won't be able to go home, yet. His doctor still wants to run more tests to see if he can find out what is causing the problems. Hopefully, everything will check out, and he'll be given a clean bill of health.

I'm a Mystery Shopper!

A few months ago, I signed up to be a mystery shopper for a nationwide restaurant chain. They contact me when they need someone to do a visit, and I report back to them with very detailed information. In exchange for my report, I receive a nice sum of money. My first visit was back in February.

So, about a week ago, I got an email requesting that I complete a visit this week. Marc and I decided to go last night. I didn't eat all day, so I would be prepared for my visit. 

Marc and I started with an onion appetizer, and Marc also ordered a cup of lobster and shrimp chowder. He went on and on about how good the chowder was, so I took a little taste of his and ended up ordering my own cup. It was sooooo good and reminded me of the corn and crab soup I always get at Terranova. 

After appetizers, we were served our entrees. Marc got a full slab of ribs and I had chicken tenders. (I know, I know....chicken fingers?  But they are so good here!) We each finished about half of our entrees and then ordered dessert. Now, this particular restaurant has a wonderful fried cheesecake dessert, but I was really in the mood for key lime pie, so that's what we ordered. It was the best key lime pie I have ever tasted! So yummy!

After we were finished with dinner, we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, and I vowed to never eat again. We were disgustingly full! But, we were really pleased with how everything went, which is usually how it goes at this restaurant. I've never had any complaints! So, I'm off to do my review!

Putt-Putt at Richland

After Marc finished playing his short game, we played a round of putt-putt golf. Richland has a really nice little course, and we had so much fun playing. The weather was beautiful and not too hot. In fact, there was a nice breeze. 

Here are some random pictures of the putt-putt course:

My ball, the pink one, went into the "sand trap."

Marc is getting ready to putt!

One of Marc's putts was really close to being a hole-in-one!

I was able to get my ball straight over this little bridge thingy and really close to the hole! Marc's first putt here ended up in the water, so I was really proud of myself!

Putting from the "rough."

We had a really good time at Richland today! I "lost" the scorecard, but I'm pretty sure that Marc won!

Golfing at Richland

I went with Marc this morning while he played nine holes of golf at Richland. I didn't play, but I had a lot of fun watching Marc play. I also took a bunch of pictures!

We rented a golf cart, and of course I loved driving it around! Marc taught me all the rules of driving etiquette, so I didn't mess up the course. 

I was really impressed with Marc's golfing skills! He has come a long way! I guess all that practicing in the back yard has paid off. 

I thought this was a neat picture. Marc was aiming for the flag in the distance, and he was able to get really, really close to it! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of where the balled ended up.

The next two pictures are out of order, but I just had to know what this funny little contraption was. So, Marc told me it was a ball cleaner and showed me how it worked. Too funny!

Okay, back to the course...Marc was really pleased with this next hole. Before he hit the ball, he told me how this was the hole from H***! Then, he hit the ball and it landed really close to the hole! He said it was the first time he had been able to do that!

A pretty picture of the "water hazard."

I kept myself busy during boring times by playing with the settings on my camera. I took this pic of myself:

After Marc finished his nine holes, he had a new grip put on one of this clubs. Then we played a round of putt-putt and hit some balls on the range. 

It was a really great day, and we had so much fun! 

I Found My Keys!

My keys were missing for almost a week! I looked everywhere for those stinkin' keys...I tore apart drawers, dug in the sofa and chair cushions, crawled around on the floor looking for them. You know where I found them? In my purse! The same purse I emptied a couple of days ago looking for them. When I was looking in my purse today, I actually pulled them out and put them on the bed not realizing that I had taken them out. Marc had to show them to me. Duh!

A Terrific Two-Movie Thursday!

Thursday was a fun-filled day! Marc and I went to see Kung Fu Panda at the Rave. It was a cute movie, but it wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be a funny Jack Black movie, but it was more about kung fu. (As Marc pointed out, that's why they called it Kung Fu Panda!) It was pretty serious for a kids' movie. 

After the movie, we went to Mason's Pub for lunch. Marc and I had never been there before, so we had to search for a few minutes to find its exact location. It's on Washington Street on the third floor of one of the downtown buildings. We were able to meter park right in front of the door. 

Mason's is a really cool little place, and the food was really good! They have a $4 tapas menu, so we ordered some fried dill pickle spears (again, my of my favorite foods!) and beef nachos for our appetizers. Marc ordered some meatball sliders (little sandwiches) for his entree, and I ordered the fish and chips. Everything was wonderful, and the portions were huge! Everything we ordered was $4, except for my fish and chips, which were $14.95 and well worth it! Oh, and their french fries are awesome! We will definitely be back!

So, after lunch we went home to chill. Then, Adam called to see if we wanted to meet him and Suzie for dinner. We decided to go to Biscuits & Blues. Again, we weren't that impressed with dinner there.

After Biscuits & Blues, we went to The Chocolate Crocodile, which is a candy store. I was in chocolate heaven! They had so many different things to choose from that it was really hard to make a decision. I bought a white chocolate covered Oreo cookie and a milk chocolate covered marshmallow stick, and Marc got some peanut brittle. Everything was so delicious!

Suzie had the idea to go see You Don't Mess with the Zohan. So, we went to see it at Monaco Theaters at Bridge Street. That was the funniest movie that I have seen in a long time. It was a typical goofy Adam Sandler movie, and I love Adam Sandler! I laughed so much during that movie!

After the movie, the boys made sure to get their free refills on their drinks, and we headed out. We stopped by the fountain for a minute so everyone could make their wishes.

It was a terrific Thursday!

Tuesday in Nashville

My family met in Nashville today to celebrate my dad's birthday, my sister's birthday, Mother's Day, and Father's Day. Since my sister is going to school up there, it's hard for her to get back to Huntsville for birthdays and holidays. It finally worked out that my sister didn't have school or work, and my dad was off from the fire station, so my parents, Marc, and I all drove up to Nashville to celebrate.

We headed up to Hendersonville, north of Nashville, in search of a little place called Steamboat Bill's. After about a 30 minute drive, we spotted the alligator (or was it a crocodile?) and knew we were there.

So, after we got out of our respective cars, we headed inside not knowing what to expect. This is what we saw as soon as we walked in the door:

 

Again, I'm not sure if this was an alligator or a crocodile, but he didn't look too happy to see us! But we were brave and kept going, and a nice girl led us to our table.

It was a cute place, but I knew we were in for good things when I saw the paper towel holder on our table. It says "Pinch dem' tails! Suck dem' head!" A true Cajun restaurant!

So, we ordered a menagerie of appetizers including fried pickles (my favorite!), calamari, boudin balls, pistolette (etouffee on bread), and gumbo. We all shared with each other, and everything was soooo good! Then our orders came. I didn't get a chance to take pictures of everyone's food, but I did manage to get a few. I ordered the popcorn shrimp:

Marc ordered the crawfish etouffee:

And my sister, Kelli, and her boyfriend ordered the seafood platter which consisted of fish, stuffed shrimp, stuffed crabs, frog legs (ewwww!), and popcorn shrimp:

After stuffing ourselves full of wonderful food, we managed to roll ourselves out to the parking lot. And of course, I managed to take some pictures of my family!

My Mother and Daddy

Marc and Me

Kelli, Daddy, Mother, and Me

And Java, the Dog!

One More Post

We saw this on the way to dinner tonight! It's been so long since I've seen a rainbow!

Girls' Night!

We had Girls' Night at Diane's house last night. Her hubby was out of town, so she thought it was a good night for it. We had sooooo much fun! 

We watched The Devil Wears Prada, which I'd never seen before. It was a really good movie! (And I'm usually not one to sit still long enough to watch a movie.) We also played Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit. Suzie ruled the game again! She is just a wealth of pop culture information! Her team had five "wedgies" before our team got one! Of course her team won, and I think our team ended up with a whopping two wedges.

We left at about 11:00pm, and since I met up to ride with Suzie, I didn't get home until after midnight. (I missed my curfew!) We had so much fun, and I can't wait to do it again!

Two Hours and $14

Marc and I just got back from seeing The Happening, which is M. Night Shyamalan's latest release. I usually love his movies like The Village, The Sixth Sense, and Signs, so I was really looking forward to seeing The Happening. 

Well, it had to have been the most confusing movie that I have ever seen! When the end of the movie came and the credits started rolling, Marc and I both just sat there looking at each other like whaaaaaat? What happened? Apparently, we weren't the only ones, because everyone coming out of the theater was talking and saying the same things we were. It was an odd, odd movie!  

At several points in the movie, people just freeze and start talking nonsense. That meant that they had been affected by "the happening." So, what did my wonderful husband do as we left the movie? He stopped in the middle of the parking lot and kept repeating "Where's the car, where's the car?" The people walking behind us busted out laughing, and I finally caught on to what he was doing. Duh!

So, like Marc said as we were driving away from the movie theater..."That's two hours and $14 we'll never get back!"

Cookies for Girls' Night

We're having Girls' Night tomorrow! I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make some "summer" cookies. I've been wanting to attempt these for some time, but it was hard to find the right opportunity. A few days ago, I begin thinking that this would be a good time!

So, I started off with heart shaped sugar cookies. I left the "tops" the way they were and cut a little off the "bottoms" to make them look like....ummm, bottoms. As you can see, some are a little more "tan" than the others.

After they cooled, I used royal icing to decorate them. I think they came out pretty cute! Instead of being lingerie cookies, I'm just going to call them bikini cookies....as in summer!

New Additions

When we were at Home Depot yesterday, I picked out some more flowers to go in our newly remodeled flower bed! We had to go to two different Home Depots, because the first one had such miserable looking plants. We ended up going back to the same one we went to the day before. Their flowers were beautiful!

I picked out some pretty yellow and orange dahlias. I loved the color of these!

I also picked out some ornamental peppers. I tried these last year in a planter, and they did horribly. However, this year I'm going to keep them in full sun. I hope they'll do better this year. Even though they're ornamental, you can eat these peppers. I've never been brave enough, but I'm sure Marc will give it a go!

I also bought some celosia flowers. These are really hardy flowers. I was disappointed that Home Depot only had them in yellow, because I really wanted either orange or red. On the upside, they were really healthy looking. I used them to fill in bare spots.

So, after it cooled off some last night, I planted the flowers. I think it turned out really well!

This flower bed is now finished, and I'm so excited to be able to work on the beds again! Even though my legs are a little sore this morning, my back doesn't hurt one bit! I have my sights set on another area of the yard now. We're waiting to see how the transplanted shrubs do before I get started, though. They're already looking better than they did a few days ago, so maybe there's hope after all!

A Late Night

Like I said earlier, Marc and I picked up some flowers and shrubs at Home Depot yesterday. After the sun went down last night, we got outside and worked on the flower bed. Marc tilled the soil and got it ready for planting. In my typical obsessive fashion, I placed the flowers to make sure they were even, and then got Marc's approval. Lovingly, I planted each flower and shrub with my own two hands...and a spade. Then we filled the bed with cypress mulch, which really smells good! 

At about 10:30pm, we stepped back to look at our work. We were really pleased with how everything turned out, although I'm going to add more small flowers to fill in some empty space. We're leaving now to go to Home Depot to pick some up! 

Getting Ready to Play in the Dirt

Today, while Marc and I were in town, we stopped by Home Depot to pick up some plants for one of our front yard flower beds. Last week, Marc moved some overgrown shrubs, so we were left with an empty space. I have been really indecisive about what to plant, but today I just bit the bullet and bought what I thought would look good.

We bought some compact evergreen shrubs as base plants:

We also found these gorgeous flowering plants that are in the lily family:

And last but not least, some really cute marigolds:

As a special treat for myself, and an incentive to make sure I water the new plants, I bought one of these handy dandy watering wands:

We also bought some soil and mulch, which is still sitting in my car because it is too heavy for me to lift. I'll have to wait for Marc to get those out for me. Anyway, I can't wait to get started planting! I have everything all laid out and ready to go. I'm so excited to see how it comes out!