Workin for the Weekend

Matt and I had a very relaxing weekend. Friday night we had the Christmas dinner for the department that Matt works in. They took us to the Weber Grill downtown. I think they only have 4 locations and the Indy one is the only one outside of Illinois. It was SO good. We had this as an appetizer: Weber Sampler--Rib Fingers, Beer Can Chicken Tenders, Steak Skewers and BBQ Shrimp. Matt got Filet Mignon and I had "Roadhouse Chicken" which was so yummy. Then we got this: Trio of Classic American Desserts--Mini Versions of Our Apple Cobbler, Chocolate Cake and Key Lime Cheesecake for dessert. Now if you have ever been out to eat with me then you know that I always look at the dessert menu before ordering my meal. That way I know if I should eat light or not and save room for a sugary treat. It has always been my opinion that restaurants should ALWAYS do a dessert sampler plate. They do it for appetizers, so why do dessert lovers get the shaft on getting to taste a little bit of everything?? So, I was pretty pleased that the Weber Grill had a dessert sampler.


Saturday was a lazy day. We haven't had very many of these lately so we took this one without guilt. We slept in, lounged around in our Pj's all day and watched movies. Plus, I wasn't feeling well...think I've got a sinus infection...so I was OK with doing nothing. A few weeks ago the Sci-Fi channel aired a mini-series called "Tin Man" which was not a re-telling of the Wizard of Oz, which I've never seen by the way, but more of a future addition. It was pretty good. That ate up about 6 hours of the day. Then we watched the Illusionist...if you haven't seen it yet you need to. It came out around the same time as The Prestige but didn't get the same amount of hype. Personally though I think it should have.







Sunday I was feeling even worse and opted to stay home and Matt went to Harvest. I couldn't go back to sleep because I couldn't breathe. Matt came home to find me in the bed trying to sing along with Grease surrounded by a mountain of Kleenex. Last night we ventured out to Scott and Kelsie's to watch the Colts game in HD. Thank goodness they looked more like the Colts I know and love. I think though that I over did it because I woke up feeling awful. But I made myself get out of bed. I can NOT afford to miss any more work.

So that was our weekend. Nothing profound just movies and football and blowing my nose a LOT. There's still snow on the ground...not as much, but still we're not used to snow being around for nearly a week. In SC it does this and then goes away within a day or two. We're in all new territory. By the way for those of you who spent the weekend in 70-80 degree weather...I don't like you.

One more thing...if anyone knows how to do that thing where you make a word the link to a website please tell me. Like I wanted to put a link to the Weber Grill site where clicking on "Weber Grill" would take you there...no clue how to do that though. Thanks!!

Prince Caspian

I just discovered the trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia 2: Prince Caspian (May 2008). It looks so good!! Check it out here: http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1355&dl=14478175

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Well, it did it again. Matt and I woke up to about another 2 inches of snow this morning. Poor thing, he had to go defrost and desnow the car. At least the other day the sun was shining. Today it is gray and they are now calling for sleet/freezing rain tonight and tomorrow. Welcome to Indiana.... Is it time to go to SC yet?????

The Christmas Spirit

All this snow (and we're supposed to be getting more tonight) has really put me in the Christmas mood. On my way to work today I started thinking about some of my favorite Christmas songs, old and new, and decided that today I would post my favorites and share why I love them so. So here goes...in no particular order:

1) O Holy Night--I've always loved this song, but it's my mom's favorite and whenever I hear it I think of her. My favorite version the one Maria Carey sings.
2) All I Want For Christmas Is A Real Good Tan--This if from Kenny Chesney's Christmas Album, mock me if you must (Heath) but it's just a fun song with a Caribbean feel and it makes me smile.
3) All I Want For Christmas Is You--Another from Mariah Carey. This is the one I sing along with in the car at the top of my lungs and off key ('cause who other than her can actually hit those notes) and also the one that I dance around to when I'm at home by myself. : )
4) Christmas in Dixie--Classic Alabama Christmas. This is a natural fave due to my Southern upbringing.
5) I Only Want You For Christmas--Alan Jackson--Another fun one
6)Let There Be Peace On Earth--Vince Gill did this one with his daughter. I love the words--"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me."
7) Carol of the Bells--I LOVE the music for this. I think that if we had gotten married at Christmas time I would have walked down the aisle to this one.
8) The First Noel--I always get a mental picture of the night Christ was born when I sing this one.
9) O Come, O Come Emmanuel--I don't hear this one enough at Christmas but I love it.
10) Winter Wonderland--This one is just plain fun to sing along with.

So those are the top ten. What are your favorites??

Let It Snow

Being from the South I'm used to hearing the weather man predict snow that never comes, but they're playing a different ball game here in the Mid-West. Yesterday they said that it was going to start snowing last night around 10 pm and that it would last through the night. I didn't put much stock into it...being from the South and all. Plus, the fridge wasn't stocked with milk and we only had 1 loaf of bread. : )

Just before we crawled into bed Matt looked out the window...it was snowing. At 6 am the phone rang letting us know that school was on a 2-hour delay. So we decided to let the girls sleep...and get a few extra Zs ourselves. Funny thing was that Kayla, the oldest, woke up and saw that it was after 8 and got dressed and woke up Emily and told her to get dressed. I guess they thought we were leaving them to their own devices. When we got up to tell them they didn't have to be at school until later they were so excited. So we had breakfast...I tried a receipe for French Toast Souffle...really good--I'll post it for you later.

So, it's been a fun day. The snow is absolutely gorgeous! And surprisingly it's not that hard to drive in. I was pretty unsure about that part. I did see some interesting sights on the way to work though. I saw someone using a snow-blower...that was a new one for me. And now I've seen two...as I was typing this I looked up and saw Randy, our maintenance guy here at work using one outside. Then I saw several pick up trucks with snow plows on the front. I told my mom that in the South they have gun racks...in Indiana they have snow plows. I also learned that high heel boots are not compatible with snow/ice and walking...nearly busted it on multiple occasions, hot apple cider and snow days are the perfect complement, and you shouldn't pump gas in this kind of weather...I thought I was going to die of hypothermia in a 5 minute time period.

Welcome to Indy! Let it snow!

One More Thing

If you're looking for a GOOD laugh you have to visit Jenny Richardson's blog. The link is under my list of "Blogs I Read". She works with mentally ill people...trust me, it's worth the read!

Parenting??

Matt and I have been "parenting" since Saturday. Kelsie's father passed away on Friday and Matt and I got the privilege of taking care of the 3 Simmons girls: Kayla-9, Emily-6, and Brook (aka Brookie)-3. We're staying with them until Scott and Kelsie get back tomorrow afternoon. It's been very interesting. Oddly enough though we've been on time for everything so far--church, school, choir, Bee Movie. Now if you know Matt and me at all you know that on our own we're never on time. Amazingly you throw in 3 kids and we're on time...not quite sure how that works yet. Saturday we took the girls to Chick-Fil-A and then to see Bee Movie, which they really liked and I must steal a quote from the Quote King (Heath) here: "Bee Movie, See Movie". Sunday we managed to get to church 10 minutes early with all of us fed and actually presentable in appearance. Sunday evening I went to a ladies' dessert fellowship with Jenny and Matt and Nathan took the girls to look at Christmas lights. Then at 4:15 AM Kayla came in to tell us that she had thrown up: we're trying to pack in as much of the experience as we possibly can.... I remembered that when I was in school we couldn't go if we had thrown up in a 24 hour period...same rules still apply, so I got to stay at home with Kayla yesterday. But we've managed to hold down the fort with minimal mutiny. We've been playing a pretty good zone defense. Matt has taken school drop off and pick up, entertainment, nightmares, major meltdowns and poop, while I got meals, laundry, bathing, wardrobe, and puke. Thankfully we actually made it through last night with no one getting up, which was AWESOME. So while I have no children of my own I do now have some experience and a LOT of appreciation my mom and dad who rock for actually letting me live while I was growing up. Thanks you guys! I know it wasn't always easy and that we drove you crazy but I get it now.

One of the funny things about being married is that you find out new things about your spouse all the time. The newest discovery: I married the love child of Mr. Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge. Matt is such a holiday nazi. He hates Christmas carols and doesn't want to even think about the holidays until about Dec. 20th. While everyone and everything is in high gear he's complaining about the tacky lights and decorating. This makes me so sad because I LOVE Christmas. So for the past few days I've been making fun of him and have now dubbed him Mr. Ebenezer Grinch Scrooge. I even serenaded him with "you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch" the other day. Funny thing about the past few days is that all the girls have wanted to listen to is Christmas music...I call it poetic justice. : )

I know I promised apt. pics last week but we were a little thrown off with the babysitting situation so they'll be up some time next week. Sorry.