HAPP NEW YEAR!!!!

Yes, yes, yes...I meant to write "Happ New Year!"...

Take a gander at my high-quality sign and you'll see why the mediocre-joke of the night was saying (in your best offensively-Chinese voice), "Happ Nuh Yah, Aye Bodee!!"

And just so you know...no. I did not get a discount (yes, someone asked). I ordered the glittery sign online, from a company where English is obviously not their first language. I was a big fan of the letters looking like they came straight from the Price Is Right.

I bet Bob Barker (oh, wait...that's Drew Carey now, isn't it??) doesn't have to deal with such things as missing Y's.

As you can see, the joke even extended to the tiaras. They did say "HAPPY", until someone brilliantly cut off all of the Y's...
Remember the picture of Will from Brian's 30th birthday party? No??? Well...it looked a lot like this...
There is this thing called camouflage. It usually doesn't come in the form of shrimp. Well, it doesn't until Sam gets her hands on those lil' boogers. I'm still not sure what she was trying to cover up...
This man spent all of his time making appetizers and trying to get a fire started. I still feel a bit guilty about that...


Oh, Brian...showing up to my party...an HOUR AND A HALF LATE. What is THAT all about??!?! Oh yeah...I almost forgot. LSU was on and my little TV wasn't good enough to watch it on. I see how it is...These are Beyonce's new back up dancers. All the single ladies...
That is Sam's deformed finger in the picture....well, I THINK it's hers...
Whenever I see this picture, all I can think of is Emily saying, "I can hug, but I have rules."
Okay...so I took this picture of Sam and Laura. I flipped through my camera multiple times. I never once noticed Sheesh in the background until I uploaded the pictures. I have to say, I've looked at this picture probably 30 times and every time, I laugh. I'm thinking that I need to print it off and put it on my bathroom mirror...you know, so I can start the day with a good laugh...
It's sad that I didn't realize that I didn't have enough seating until after the party and thought, "Hmmm...why did Mike stand the entire time and why did Lisa, Beth, and Wendy sit on the counter?"
Whoops. I'm a bad hostess...
It really wouldn't be an event without Sheila's hand wave. It just wouldn't.
Wendy was mad that she was the only one that smiled normal...she didn't realize that Sam and Sheesh WERE smiling "normal". I think this picture was taken later in the night. I'm sure you're dying to know why I think that. Well...check out the second picture. Take a look at Brian's eyes....how could it NOT be late in the night with eyes like that???

Poor Katie couldn't stay up too late. Apparently, the animal kingdom doesn't recognize the Christian calendar. I am a little surprised that Kate didn't care that there were 16 people running around making all sorts of noise. Ummm....are we cheers-ing empty glasses? Yeah, maybe. Oh, well. At least I can look at that picture and think, "That was definitely on a NYE...no other time during the year do I drink out of a champagne glass. Which NYE? Well...I have no idea. Chris and I have been best friends for 52 years and it could be any one of those New Years Eves." (Yeah, I dream big. *Enter Saved By the Bell's "Friends Forever" song here*)


Those Steeles are so wacky. I really don't know what they are doing here, but (as always when it comes to those two) I find it hilarious...
I don't remember taking this picture. But much like the cheers-ing picture, I'll be able to semi-date it by the fact that Emily very rarely wears a Happy New Year tiara.
Mike stayed in the same spot the entire night. I fear he may have been bored out of his mind...
I love that Kim and Jimmy showed up...but I felt that they were constantly about to bolt, seeing that Kim never took off her jacket. (Just so you know, they didn't. Actually, they were rock stars and stuck it out until the bitter end. YAY THEM!)

Soooo....smores....blessed, blessed smores.
I so badly wanted to roast marshmallows outside and have smores on NYE. I had Brian bring over his fire pit thing. I had wood. I had smores stuff. I was so ready. So ready until NO ONE could start a fire. I was bummin'. Bummin' until the BRILLIANT Beth pulled out the secret weapon...my stove (why had I not thought of it before?!?!?). I had never tasted anything so delicious in my life. Kudos to Beth for her critical thinking skillz!

I'm starting to wish that I had written this 5 days ago. I would have had a better play by play.

Can anyone fill in some of the holes for me??

And this should finish it off....

The last week of December was the busiest week ever. Okay...maybe not the busiest, but still...there was definitely no extra time to blog.
I left at 5:30 on Christmas Eve morning to make my way to St. Louis. This is what I found when I got there... Yeah. That's Sadie....crying. Come to find out, she cries 93.7% of the time. If she's not eating (which she wants to do every half hour) or sleeping (which she won't do until 2:30am), she's crying. One of my favorite moments is when I put a status update on my Facebook that said something like"Sadie won't stop crying" and Julie responded with, "Give her some wrapping paper to play with."
Oh, Julie. Ummm....yeah. No. Good try, though.

After Sadie left, Zack and Jade (my little brother and his wife) came over. I like to think that they weren't waiting for Sadie to leave to come over, but it was awfully convenient that they showed up mere moments after her departure.
We exchanged gifts that night...I am now the proud owner of an avocado green neck warmer, made by Zack. It features three buttons for closure...closure around your neck brace. Unfortunately, I haven't had any neck injuries lately. Maybe someday, though. It did produce some pretty good laughs though....sorry I don't have any pictures with it on (I think my mom has custody of those...)

This picture was taken Christmas morning. Now that is one cute kid. Logan opened a helmet from Santa (before mom and dad gave him his bike) and seemed a little bummed, but still remained optimistic when he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I can use this when I get a bike for my birthday."
Little did he know, he only had to wait about 10 more minutes until his dad brought out his bike from the back room...
Man...when I was four, I was rockin' the Big Wheel. How times have changed....

I'm trying to teach Sadie how to do the self portrait in this pic. Silly girl could never get the concept of looking at the camera. I suppose that was a bit much to ask of a 3 month old.
(She wasn't crying in this picture because she just woke up, be assured that she was bawling within 9 minutes of this being taken...)

My mom had asked her friend (who just happens to be a professional photographer) to do our family pictures (which definitely haven't been taken for about 10 years). I love that I had just done my hair and then it got rained on right before the picture. The funny thing is, there isn't much difference between "perfect hair" and "rained-on hair". Oh, well....what can you do??
Here's the picture of my whole family...

And here's the one of my brothers and me. My mom pointed out that the three of us look absolutely nothing alike and then promptly stated, "I promise, you all have the same father."
Ummm....I wasn't questioning it, but now that you've pointed it out...hmmmmmmmmm....

On Friday (December 26th), my cousin, Geoff, married his longtime girlfriend, Carrie Leigh. They were married in a small, candlelit (candlelit because there was no electricity 100 years ago) ceremony at the Old Peace Chapel (Daniel Boone's chapel or something like that). They had a larger reception later that night.
Here's a picture of Geoff checking out his surprise groom's cake. Geoff is a drummer and this cake was pretty amazing...
I just want to know who ate it after the wedding.

I love these two pictures. The first one is of Cassie and the second one is of Carrie. You can definitely tell that they are sisters, can't you??

Here's a picture of Carrie's husband, Matt. I actually have about 10 pictures of Matt (and of Carrie and Matt) at the head table. I'm not sure why he wanted to take so many, but I think it may have something to do with being bummed that his "special day" happened almost 2 years ago....

COOLEST THING EVER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!
Instead of those cheesy favors that you usually get at weddings, Carrie and Geoff had a photo booth. It would spit out 2 copies, one to keep and the other one to put in the photo album that you would sign for the bride and groom. It was AWESOME. We just kept picking up our pictures and then we'd go to the end of the line to do it all over again.

I really can't explain any of these...
The bride informed me that someone spilled a red drink down her dress during this one...
I have to say...I drank NOTHING red at that reception. So I DIDN'T DO IT!! YAY ME!!!

Carrie and I tried to do the "heart hands" in the first picture...our "heart hands" suck.
I flew back to Charlotte on December 28th...my plane got in at 7:45pm. I got to my car and was going to meet Chris for dinner before I went back to the airport at 11:30 to pick up Julie. My car broke down by the Bloom on Sugar Creek at 8:30. It was such a sad way to go. I had always hoped that when my car died, it just wouldn't start one morning (you know, kind of like dying in it's sleep). No, no, no...poor Chris had to come push it up a hill to get it in the parking lot of Bloom. As I'm typing this...it's still there (I had a little trouble finding my title, but it's all good now...I finally found it yesterday).
I'm just so thankful that 1. Chris was in town (he got in that morning) to come save me and 2. Emily and Dan were in town the next day to help me car shop.
It was an ALL DAY event and I had rules that I had to follow.
1. Keep it under 50,000 miles (preferably 20-30K).
2. We're getting the extended warranty.
3. No used American-made cars.
4. No VWs.
5. No talking.

I followed the rules. Emily and Dan were awe inspiring...pretty much tag-teaming the sales guy, playing good cop (Dan), bad cop (Em). I really don't think I could have done it without them.
And this is what I ended up with....a 2006 Hyundai Tucson. I think it's cute...and I don't care what you say (okay, I do...stop making me question myself...thanks).


Alright. I'm tired. I guess I'm going to have to have one more December post.

UP NEXT: NEW YEARS EVE!!!!

December...Part Uno.....

So December was a pretty busy month, so I've decided to two-part this thing...

On December 7th, I went to Kelly and John's Christmas party (I still have yet to see any pictures from that party, I'm starting to believe that none were taken) and then went to Whisky River for Jimmy's birthday party. Yeah...it was a fantastic night.

On December 12th, I went with Kim to meet some of my friends at Crave to watch Lauren's boyfriend play. When Lauren had originally told me about her new boyfriend (well, new-ish...they've been together or a few months), I thought that he was in a band. You know...like a cover band or something. No. He plays guitar...by himself....not with a band...and he's pretty good. I guess Lauren's the winner when it comes to boyfriend picking. *sigh*
On December 19th, Chris, Beth, Mike, and I went to see Colbie Caillat at Amos'. Pre-Colbie, we had dinner at Tavern on the Tracks (as you can see in the first picture from that night, Beth and I cheesed in the bathroom of TOTT...classy).
Jon McLaughlin opened for Colbie. Ummm....how do I put this???
Whoa.
Wait...no...that doesn't even come close to describing him. Okay...I've got to find a picture for any of you who may not know this God's-gift-to-woman-(and gay-man)-kind.(You're welcome)

As for these pictures...I could have sworn that I had taken a picture of Mike that night. I guess I didn't. He must've been refreshing drinks when I broke out my camera. Man....Mike is a good guy.

Alright. That's all I've got for now. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat, awaiting 2008's conclusion...

Pretty low key...but that's just how November is....

I don't even know how to blog about this month and make it halfway interesting. So...I'm not going to (not make it interesting, I'll still blog about it...).
The first weekend of November I spent up in Boston with my girl, Em. That's her admin (Stacy) with us at the Hong Kong Bar. Emily just recently realized that Stacy isn't very good at reading her mind, because she found Julie's necklace in her office that she meant to have Stacy FedEx to J. Tisk, tisk, tisk, Stacy....work on your mind-reading skillz, honey....


On November 8th, the whole crew went out for Sam's birthday. I love this picture because everyone looks so uninterested....everyone except for Chris and Sam. What is he doing to her???

November 15th was spent at Mike Grosz's Independence Party. This is by far my favorite pic from the night. How awesome is Daniel? Laid back, with his mind on his money and his money on his mind...
What else, what else, what else???

November 18th- Sam became a gimp.
November 27th- Yummy Thanksgiving at Beth's.
November 29th- Dinner at Firebirds with Em, Dan, Chris, Julie, and Thomas. I heart that steak.
November 30th- A big ol' day of fun with Em, Dan, Chris, and Julie. Em tends to have an obsession with cheap Mexican food.

Alrighty...that's all I've got for November. You can wake up now.

October. Yeah. Finally October. Sorry.

Recap of October. Yes, I meant to post this in 2008, but what can you do? I've had a busy last half of December (you'll have to wait awhile to see why...well, if you know me at all, you know why...)

Since I've already written about this stuff, you're getting mainly pictures...

At the beginning of October, Sam, Brian, Chris, Brandt, Jen, and I went to Columbia, SC to watch the LSU/USC game...

It included such events as us getting lost (Brian stopped a mailman to ask him for directions...who knows the area better than a mailman?!?!), Sam calling the cab driver a cabbie, and me being sooooo excited to meet Mr. Boudreaux (the owner of Boudreaux's Butt Paste). I was so excited (or was it drunk??) to meet him that I told him the story of my grandma searching for his product online and finding nothing but porn. Oh. And I insisted on getting my picture taken (I had to resist saying "Getting my picture made") with him. Enjoy that.

Mid-October, we went out to Firebirds for Beth's birthday. I took one (count 'em...ONE!) picture. I guess you could say that I was too involved in my steak. That blessed blue cheese steak....

The last day of October was spent with some of my dearest pals at Julie's Halloween party. I still can't believe that was over two months ago...

Are we laughing about it yet???? Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes......

Well, there you have it. October. My most-favoritest month of the year...