Sean Payton is My Friend!

Jenn and I fancied ourselves up for the Eastern Illinois University Athletics Winter Gala. It was an a-mazing night, full of great company, delicious food, wine, and famous alum from Eastern, including Sean Payton! In standard Jenn-and-Christy style, we decided somewhat last minute to attend, me as her date, and had to somewhat scramble for "black-tie" appropriate attire. Also standard, we arrived just as the VIPs were getting ready to be introduced. (The life of the working woman. The working woman who must try on several options prior to settling on JUST one dress.) Also completely expected was that we would have a conversation with Mr. Of-the-Moment Payton and reminisce about Ike's, Sigma Chi, and Alpha Gam. I'm pretty sure he loved us, especially when I oh-so-cooly mentioned that his anonymous shopping days at Target were over. I'm sure he cared. Much to Shonn's delight, I did restrain myself from asking him to be my facebook friend. That much restraint takes willpower, people.

We also caught up with our EIU buddy Brian Jones and his wife, as well as Ken Baker, my former Fitness for Life instructor and the replay judge for this year's superbowl. Mr. Baker always gives me a hard time about how he tried recruiting me for Eastern's track team when I came to an indoor track meet my senior year. I invited him to a celebrity golf outing at Cog Hill when I worked for Margie Korshak downtown. We've kept in touch ever since college, and he is such a kind person.

Anyway, it was a great night - one of the nicest events I've been to since our days as EIU Panther Pals, traveling around the country with Lou Hencken. It's always good to catch up with Jenn - we always talk the entire time we're together!

Check back later - I will upload Sean's keynote speech when I find my Blackberry cord. (Sooooo that might be next year.)

We Love Cake

Shonn always jokes (at least I think he's joking) that 1/2 the reason he got married was because of the wedding cake. And I loved my wedding cake - it was so beautiful. I didn't eat any of it, because I'm not really a cake person, I'm more of a "if-it's-pretty-I-like-it" person than I am the whole I-love-icing type, and I was so busy that day. But this cake was amazing and a picture of it was on my screen saver today, which made me reminisce about it, so I wanted to share. Sigh.

Thanks, Shonn!

Shonn did an awesome job hanging the pictures from my craft day! (I would also like to point out how nice the gigantic tv cord looks since he put it away in the attic's cord-tunnel he made, for those of you who read my "Too Many Technology Updates" entry from December.)

PS) Nic Stokes doesn't look too bad on the tv, either...

Friends Tomorrow Night!

I'm so excited to have our friends over Sunday night, and I realized I've never properly introduced them. I found some pictures (including one from our GRAMMY's PARTY - please note my sequined-bolero just for the occasion) and thought they would provide the perfect material for introductions. (In the last picture, we are all wearing name tags as a joke because AARON cannot remember anyone's names. EVER! It's hilarious.)

First up is Chris and Allison. They are our best carny friends! Allison used to teach at Mattoon Middle School, where I work now, and Chris got his degree as an architect. They made a deal to give it up and start their own business with carnival games and rides, IF Chris would take Allision to Europe when they were done. (She has a minor in Spanish, too!) The deal worked, and now, six (?) years later, they're still at it! Here is a picture of them on the day they found out they were going to have their little girl, Hadleigh Reese.

They have a dog named Dexter and they travel from about March - October, collecting amazing stories on the carnival circuit. I wish you could meet them to hear some of the most hilarious tales I've ever heard AND to eat some of Allison's delicious cooking/baking/whatever you call it. She's always coming up with themes for our next party, and when she hosts, it's with the complete place-card, labeled dishes you might expect. Little Hadleigh is still waiting to come to our house because she's such a tiny little thing! She will make her grand debut in about April, with likely one of the cutest outfits you've ever seen - the girl has more clothes than any big person I know.

Next, we have Jayme and Aaron. Jayme and I work in the same district - she's a high school psychologist. (She does a trillion other things, too, like counseling, mothering, nursing, and organizing tons of data, but her actual title is psychogist.) As you can tell from this adorable pic, she's very professional, too. Jayme is so much fun and probably could have been a professional shopper (that is a fashion snuggie). In her free time, she loves to talk about Financial Peace. (hahahaha!) Her husband Aaron works at a local bank and is a wiz at Priceline deals. He has a...WIDE VARIETY of friends and is really funny, as you can tell from this image of him at a weiner roast last Fall. (His hair is not actually that scary.) The two of them live in Charleston in a beautiful wooded area with their dog, Piper, and cat, Kitty. (Truth.) They have an adorable house with a POOL that I'm ready to start using soon... They are a lot of fun because they are always up for just about anything, including taking in foreign exchange students or playing made-up games. :)

Adam and Abbie are about the cutest couple you're going to meet. (They are pretty much always like they are in this picture!) Adam is our technology minister at church and he definiely adds a ton of interest with awesome videos and lots of creativity. He has an amazing singing voice and actually graduated with a music focus, so he gets to use those talents by directing Christmas in the Chapel every year. He might be the biggest Colts fan I know, but he's bounced back from his superbowl-induced depression, so that's a positive. Abbie is always happy and smiling - unless you get her going on the topic of thank you notes, at which point she transforms into a rather angry little elf. She is also an encyclopedia of Friends-trivia, which prior to meeting her, I thought was a title held my college roommate, Susan. But seriously, she knows ev-ery thing about that show. She's also a recent Aunt and she works at Sarah Bush in Mattoon.

In a later edition, I'll tell you all about Carly & Jim; Amanda & Ryan; Chris & Kelsey; Liz & Kong; and Lydia & Nate. Quite frankly, I'm too tired to write anymore.

Wii Just Dance

I've been going to "work out" with my friend Casey Jo on Monday nights at the Methodist Church in Sullivan. Let me illustrate this a little more clearly, which will explain the need for quotation marks around the term. The first week we went, we were greeted with Richard Simmon's smiling face circa 1982, for sure. Casey and I sweat to the oldies with a fun group of about 12 other women, ranging in age from 8 to 60. We spent most of the time laughing our butts off (misson accomplished) and our laughing got so out-of-control our stomachs also got a work out. I just couldn't get over Richard's amazing legs and the amazing job his camera/makeup/wardrobe crew did hiding his... well, when he's doing high-kicks and pelvic thrusts in shorty-short-shorts, you have to ask the obvious question: Where is it? So that search became the primary focus of our "workout" and it resulted in quite a few fits of collective laughter.


Casey couldn't get over the fact that one of the back-up dancers was surely Felicity Huffman in her pre-Housewife Days, and we all wondered how Big Suzie had already lost 126 pounds. It was actually so much fun, and to top it all off, the 8-year old told me she liked my moves. So that was pretty awesome.

(If you're interested, you can STILL BUY THE 5-DISC SET! Call or click now, annnd.... http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Collection-Sweatin-Oldies/dp/B000Z0UEV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1266774174&sr=8-1 )

As awesome as dancing with Richard was, the next time we went, we decided to mix things up a bit. The 8-year-old previously mentioned (whose name happens to be Claire) decided to lead our class. (You can start to see the need for quotation marks, yes?) She brought her favorite Wii game, Just Dance. Let me pause for a moment to endorse this product. Because if you thought sweatin to the oldies seemed like a good time (really? you did?!), you have no idea how much fun you can have with this game! It plays a bunch of popular songs and choreographs your moves. Sooo, basically it's sweating to the oldies minus the oldies and minus an occasionally inappropriate Richard Simmons. (In the Wii game, he's been replaced by cartoon-Pixarish characters with only a bit more clothing.)


When "Hammer Time" and "Step by Step" came on, I couldn't help myself from pulling out the stops with the Roger Rabbit and Running Man moves I've been kept hidden for oh-so-long... Casey and I were transported back to our middle school dance days and began laughing, again...


So imagine my suprise when chaperoning my Middle School Dance on Friday, as the cafeteria filled with kids playing Just Dance! Annd before I could yell "STOP! Hammer Time!" they were all doing the Running Man in sync! Naturally, I had to join in, and before long, we had a fierce competition going on between some of the teachers and twelve-year-olds. Good times.



I can't wait to see what the ladies have in store for us Monday night...

It's Good to be Loved

My Valentine was really sweet all weekend. Friday night he made me dinner and then we went to the movies - Valentine's Day (loved it - a total chick flick) with our good friends Aaron & Jayme, Chris & Allison, Adam & Abbie, and Chris & Kelsey. I got popcorn and the biggest drink. I'm so spoiled. We went out for awhile afterwards and had a great time laughing and talking.

Then, Saturday, Shonn went to the boat show in St. Louis with his buddy Mike and I had breakfast with mom followed by a scavenging day at Hobby L0bby & TJ. When we got home, we made our heart-shaped pizza (see post) and hung out. He suprised me with Norah Jones tickets and a weekend away in Chicago! He is so attentive and thoughtful- he knows I like Norah Jones AND spending weekends away on occasion. We love hanging out at home, but sometimes getting away lets us focus just on each other.

Anyway, there's more!! He made a delicious breakfast Sunday morning, we went to church, and then had lunch with friends at BWW...where the girls talked and the boys watched the Illini lose. We spent the rest of the day relaxing together.

I am so lucky to have him - he is my best friend and one of the kindest, most loving people I've ever known. xoxoxox

Rug & Pillow Inspired Paintings

I finished the project for the left side of our fireplace today. I painted three more pics - two inspired by Pottery Barn pillows and one more abstract flower from our rug. Here are the pillows:

It took about an hour and a half to finish all three, so then went on a frame-finding mission. I found these frames for the I-can't-believe-it-price of $6 each. They are very similar to the $36 gallery frames I love from PB. Granted, I had to go to FOUR different Dollar General locations, and the fact that there are that many in a twenty-five mile radius says something about our area, I'm sure. (Three of them were in Mattoon!)

Anyway, here are the pics, and I'm actually pretty happy with how they turned out. When Shonn gets them up, I'll post what it looks like totally finished.

Now, onto the next project: a rustic sign for the right side of our fireplace!

Gotta love clearance!

So, before I wore them for the first time, I simply had to share my amazing bargain purchase. Check out my new Steve Madden riding boots! (And please don't ask me what one is supposed to ride while wearing them - I don't know.) Originally $129, I got these babies on Saturday for $15!

Here's my winter look (please note I am kindly inviting Spring to Sullivan with my bright yellow), and I just can't wait to wear them with a cute spring dress.

Crafts gone Awry

We need something for above our bed and also to the sides of our fireplace. I've been looking for just the right thing for about 2 years now and can't find anything I really like. So tonight I decided to take matters into my own hands, (never the best plan) and here are the results...

1. Using Pottery Barn catalog for inspiration for some art above our bed, I've been kinda drawn to this whole nesty-whimsical-bird look. There's a cute pillow in PB with the definition of "nest" on it that I love. There's also this great piece of iron wall art with a branch I thought looked cool and would be pretty easy to paint, so I put the two together, got out my VERRRY dusty art supplies, and went from there.

Here's the result:

I used an old frame I've had for awhile and I repainted the mat to match the colors of the pic. When I got it all assembled in the frame, I realized I wasn't totally in love with how it turned out, but figured it would do for now. Then I made the mistake of trying to staple-gun the backing, which resulted in lovely broken glass, as depicted above. I'm such an idiot. Oh well! It was fun, and I was only using that frame because we already had it. I really wanted a weathered-cream colored one, so yay!, now I can go shopping!

2. The second project I started came from the patterns on our rug plus another PB pillow, this one with an embroidered bird.

Here is one of the flowers from the rug:

And here are three of the pictures so far. I tea-stained the paper and then used acrylics to kinda free-hand the images. They're okay. I have three more to do: 2 birds and one more flower, and then I think I'm going to get some frames in the style of PB gallery and do a 2 X 3 arrangement on the left side of the fireplace.

At least we'll have something on the wall until I find what I really want.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night, Shonn and I made homemade, heart-shaped pizza for our third Valentine's Day in a row. The dogs were hoping for a taste-test, but all they got was love. (You can clearly see how much they would have preferred the pizza.)

xoxoxoxox

Delicious Snack

I am one of those girls who never has enough time to make the cute snacks for the parties we go to, so tonight I was so happy when I got hungry for a snack while watching Criminal Minds reruns because it led to the creation of this delicious and super-easy treat. I love sweet and salty mixes, and this hits that spot along with being pretty cute. (The only thing it's missing is healthy, but who cares.)

All it takes is two kinds of microwavable popcorn products from Orville Redenbacher - an Ultra Butter and the product below called Microwavable Caramel Popcorn. (2 for $3!)


First make a bag of ultra buttery popcorn and put it in a big bowl. Then, make the bag of popcorn from the caramel popcorn mix and dump it into a microwavable safe bowl. Cut the caramel into squares, put it on top of the popcorn and put it back in the microwave for about a minute and half. Stir it up and let it cool for about 3 minutes. Dump it on top of the buttery popcorn and mix it together.

Yum!

Studious Dogs.

This is so terrible and embarrassing but I don't even care. Instead of correcting our dogs, I take their picture when they're bad. (It's just that they look so smart here! Annd these instances were on separate occasions, I might add...)

We are sooo in trouble when we have kids. At least Shonn is.

Super Super-Bowl

We had so much fun at our friends Jayme & Aaron's house for the superbowl. There was so much great food and they even had necklaces for the Saints and Colts. They also had a scoreboard where you sign a square for the score at the end of each quarter. Aaron sold a lot, but we made the night even more exciting with random games to win the left over squares.

Game #1: Who can stand in the snow the longest? Prize: 3 squares on the scoreboard.

Jess was getting a little out of control, so we left her alone for awhile...

Game #2: Who can eat the most jalepenos? No pictures because I was involved...unfortunately.

Game #3: Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Here, Aaron and Jess go head-to-head. Please note that Jess was the first quarter winner. (See her yellow ribbon?)

Final Rock, Paper, Scissor bracket results... I won! Prize: 3 squares on the scoreboard!Shonn was the third quarter winner for $5. So proud. It was a blast. Thanks, Holts!