De Rigeur for November

I have noticed its de rigeur to use the month of November to share with the internet all for which you are grateful.  Some people post a daily tribute on facebook or twitter-even if the reflection is just three seconds it takes to post a stats update on a social network, I think it’s always a good idea to stop and reflect on what all we are grateful for. 

Today I will list out 30 things I’m thankful for.  While this list is not all exclusive, or in any particular order, it does touch on the big thing.

1. I’m grateful for my family and that I like them all.  Of course I love them, but its rare these days to actually enjoy every single family member- My parents, uncle/aunts, cousins, even my in-laws, I enjoy being around all of them, as they each bring a particular flavor to the table-and for that I love and like them.

2. I am thankful for my hubby.  He puts up with my energy, my nagging, the cat, and the fact that I don’t like (Alabama) football.  Its also pretty wonderful that he loves me for all my faults.

3. I’m thankful that my parents act young.  They may be older than most parents, but I’m glad they are healthy and active.

4. I am grateful for stylemepretty.com, gilt.com, spider solitaire, Pacman, and Tetris.  Without these wonderful inventions, I would be a bored person (at work).  I am also thankful for Ankit, for adding some competition to the day.

5. I’m thankful that my husband is an only child and that my mother-in-law lives ones stop light away.  I get all her attention- which I love. 

6. I’m grateful that my sister is my best friend and that she’ll always be bossy.  There are three things in life that are constant- death, taxes, and Ann being bossy.  I hope she never changes.

7. I’m thankful for cookie dough.

8. I’m thankful that I have the ability to look back on my life thus far and think how wonderful it has been.

9. My thankful I got to know my grandparents, Boppy and Grandma.  They were both exceptionally outstanding people and I’m so grateful they were my grandparents.

10. I’m thankful for Iron Tribe Crossfit.  Its more of a social outlet than actual workout/competition for me, but I enjoy it and therefore I’m thankful for it.

11. I’m grateful for all the traveling I’ve done.  As a young child and now.  There are so many places in the world that are interesting that are hundreds of thousands of miles away and I’m thankful that I have traveled so some of them.

12. I’m thankful for my job (sometimes).

13. I’m grateful for my closet, shoe, and handbag collection.

14. I’m grateful that Scott and I laugh all the time when we’re together.  He always finds a way to make me laugh.  I love to laugh, and I love him.

15. I’m thankful for home cooked food.  I don’t care anymore who cooks it, as long as its home cooked. 

16. I’m grateful for all the friendships I have scattered all over the US.  Sometimes I’m not that good at staying in tough, but for the most part, when we reunite, its just like old times.

17. I’m grateful that 24 of my family members will be going on a cruise together this Christmas.  I’m sure we’ll come back with plenty of memories/stories.

18. I’m grateful for technology.  Especially cell phones.

19. I’m grateful that I live close to a TCBY. (My body is not).

20. I’m grateful for our home.  Although I’m not grateful for the mess inside the home.

21. I’m grateful for Papoose.  He is one of the most selfless people I know and I’m honored to be part of his family.

22. I’m grateful for William and his phone calls.  While I can’t understand much of what he says, his voice always brightens my day. 

23. I’m grateful for my coworkers. The locations we have to go to aren’t always the most desirable- so it’s nice to have fun coworkers around to joke with to make the time pass faster.  There is only one I’m not grateful for.  Ok, maybe two.

24. I’m grateful for all the time I spent going to swim practice.  It taught me at a young age dedication, hard work, and self-confidence.  I miss the smell of chlorine and the feel of swimmer’s ear.

25. I’m thankful that my dad-enough said.

25. I’m grateful that I know how to ski and for all the ski trips we go on as a family.

27. I’m grateful for chocolate.

28. I’m grateful for my dog Nellie and her energy.

29. I’m grateful for mine and Scott’s health.

30. Lately, I’m thankful (again) for my family.  Because at the end of the day, they are the people who I am so happy to spend the rest of my life with.  

I can taste Thanksgiving

Hooray its almost Thanksgiving!!  Just when I start getting tired of work, traveling, and the daily grind, it becomes holiday season-the best season of all.  My parents are coming this weekend, which is quite the event for us.  I can’t remember the last time they were both here together.  Usually daddy will visit on his way to a cycling event, and mom will visit on her way from Tampa to Birmingham-so to have them together means we’ll have a packed house! 

I worked my booty off getting the house ready for the big arrival.  Lisa helped me decorate the tree (ok that’s a lie, she did it all), the house got cleaned, and both rats (Nellie and Gigi) have been brushed and polished ready to see their grandparents.  I remember when Boppy and Grandma use to visit us in Tennessee.  Before they came, mom would go on mad crazed cleaning rage.  We had to polish all the silver, clean under the beds, mop all the hardwoods, and daddy would vacuum the garage.  That’s pretty funny- vacuuming the garage- I use to think how silly my dad was for doing that, now I find myself vacuuming the garage. Haha.

The best part of Thanksgiving is the food.  Lisa is cooking this year - which means it will all be prepared with about 5 lbs of butter.  I’m sure Scott is already day dreaming about the food coma he’ll be in.  I’m thankful that 3 days out of the year (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easer) Scott is full.

After our food coma wears off, we’ll be heading to Iron Tribe for their Bring-a-Friend day.  Scott is brining John (brother-in-law) and I’m bringing daddy.  This should be entertaining.  Mom will probably come to watch-and document John and Daddy getting their butts kicked.

I’ve already got Black Friday mapped out in my head.  Let’s just say, it starts on Thursday at 10pm.  I need to find something particular to shop for.  This same thing happened last year- I didn’t really have anything special to shop for, so I just went ahead and purchased everything I could think of just incase I needed it.  Got any ideas?

Well that’s all for now folks.  Have a fabulous Thanksgiving filled with family, food, and shopping!!!

Slacking

This is slightly embarrassing.  I can’t believe it’s been almost 3 months since my last post.  I don’t even have a good excuse-well I’m sure I can think of something since we all know I’m never at fault (in true Neidhardt fashion).  I’m also sure none of the 5 followers probably have even noticed that I’ve been MIA.  Its only my dedicated coworkers, looking for entertainment, that have noticed my laziness (Helpling/2 Naughty) Here are some news items that  happened since the preceding blog post.

·         We (me, Scott, Lisa, and Papoose) took a surprise trip to NYC for Papoose’s 85^th birthday to see The Phantom of the Opera.  It was a blast and I know Papoose loved it-although I’m sure he is still recovering.



·          For the first time in William’s life, he was the cool kid at school.  Grandma Karen got him a Curious George backpack from the clearance rack at Costco and his life changed.  The kids in his class were so obsessed with the backpack and its zippers, the teacher asked John to keep the backpack at home, since it was such a disturbance.  Oh and he also got his first professional hair cut!  No more Lloyd Christmas look-a-like.  I feel like he has a chance at being the cool kid again-hopefully for more than 1 day next time.



William in his Fireman oufit for Halloween



·         Football games!!  Last weekend wasn’t the best.  I was on suicide watch with Scott since Bama lost and we had to cancel all our reservations in Miami for the BCS Championships.  Thankfully, he has made a full recovery.  I, on the other hand, don’t get upset when Auburn losses since that would be awfully repetitive.



·         Our big black hairy baby, Nellie, had surgery.  The doctors originally thought she ate a foreign object, but after surgery, they discovered she suffers from IBS -which means she now gets fancy dog food.



·         I have been traveling in the great state of Mississippi for 3 months straight.  Not sure how I got on the Naughty List, but I’m on it, and I now have to work in MS.  While for the most part the state is beautiful, some things dumbfound me.  For example, I was at the Wal-Mart in West Point (probably the first mistake) and witnessed the couple purchase at least 80 packets of Kool-Aid.  They weren’t even on sale.  It was amazing to see Kool-Aid packets fill up an entire Wal-Mart bag.

·         I have become un-addicted to gilt.com.  It was a long process-but it had to happen.

·         Our next big thing will be Thanksgiving.  Not sure if I’m more excited about Lisa’s cooking or Black Friday….tough call…but I’ll pick Lisa’s cooking since its Paula Deen style.  My parents will be coming in town for the holiday along with The Musser’s.  The highlight of the holiday will probably be going on The Polar Express with William, Olivia and Harper (his cousins)!! Can’t wait!!  Such an exciting time for everyone!

Hope everything is doing well and loving the fall/winter weather as much as me!

Happy Fall Y'all!



Nellie on the way home from doggie ER



Honey-Do List

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Time has been flying by here at the Farris household and we’re attempting to get some of the “honey do” items checked off the list!  I finally convinced Scott to let us get a new couch.  This was about 1 year in the making.  While the couch isn’t as awesome as our old one (no chase lounge) it does smell nice, the pillows stand up, and it’s not torn up by the dog.  We are also finally replacing the scratched up doors and crown molding around the house.  Next on our agenda is painting.  Don’t worry, we outsource all our work- the hardest part is picking out a color.

 

A few weeks ago I had a mini girls night out – Me, KTP, and Lee went to a charity event call The White Party.  Since KTP’s bachelorette party was previously planned for that night, we decided to call it Katie’s Freedom Party.  It was a success.

Scott’s 28^th birthday was last week!  He celebrated with a family birthday dinner and a golf outing to FarmLinks with 5 of his buddies. His big gift this year from the family was a new Apple computer.  This is our first Apple product (not including ipods).  It’s a bit of a learning curve but I still believe Apples are overpriced and overly confident.  Besides those two little facts, the computer is great.

 

Also, a big shout out to my best friend, Taylor- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!  She is spending her birthday working up in DC.  I kinda feel sorry for her-mainly bc it sucks celebrating a birthday away from home, but then I remember that last week she was chillin’ at St. Kitts Island- relaxing, fishing, and enjoying the most beautiful beaches God made—and then I don’t really feel sorry for her anymore.  I’d trade lives with her any day.

 

William is a UFO?

As many of you know, my nephew, William, is the cutest kid in the world (although I'm probably a bit bias).  Sometimes, he can be mistaken for  a thug, Olympic swimmer, Denis the Menace, or Lloyd Christmas...until now....William might be a UFO.  Yes, that's right, William could be related to my childhood hero, E.T Phone Home.  Here is the proof- You decide.

You can't deny the similarity

Either way, William and his father, John, both have "unique" hair (and facial expressions)

Thug for Life

As many of you know, looks are deceiving.  This is especially true with me.  While outwardly I look like an average Jane (no pun intended), deep down, I’m gangster.  Yup, true story.  When I was a kid, I dreamed of getting cornrows in my hair with hot pink big barrettes, I know all the lyrics of Gangsters Paradise, and I hail from the projects of East Tennessee.

With that said, I know my fair share of rap music.  On my way home yesterday, a song came on 95.7 Jamz, and I actually listened to the lyrics….which made me burst out laughing.  I have complied a few of my all time favorite rap lyrics that, when taken out of the song, are pretty interesting. 

·         “How can I maintain, with mad shit on my brain?”  –Ruff Ryders’ Anthem by DMX.  Because mad shit is always on the brain.

·         “Brenda, LaTisha, Linda, Felicia, Dawn, LaShaun, Ines Alicia, Teresa, Monica…ect” What These B** Want by DMX.  The name list when on and on-there comes a point where bragging turns into an STD.

·         “I'm a BET soldier and MTV gangsta, I will be on VH1 when I'm done bein famous” – Lil’ Wayne.  Speaking the truth- his next appearance will be on Celebrity Rehab.

·         "I keep it O.G. watching episodes of O.C." – Brand New by Living Legends.  Even gangsters watch the OC.

·         “I’m a venereal disease like a menstrual bleed…” – Lil’ Wayne.  Why would anyone call themselves this?

·         “Address me as your highness, high as United, 30,000 feet up and you are not invited” – So Appalled by Kanye West.   Noone can explain what comes out of Kanye's mouth.

·         “Feels like a midget is hanging from my neckless” – Stand Up by Ludacris.  Say what?

·         “I’m so cheesy ho my swag got high cholesterol” – All of the Lights by Childish Gambino.  Serious disease-no joking matter.

·         “Green got cheese like a nacho, if you ain’t got no a$$ beotch, wear a poncho” Rack City by Tyga.  This explains the recent tunic trend.

·         “You should make your own toilet tissue, since you the shit” – Duces by Kanye West.  A new way of making toilet tissue.  Hope Kleenex doesn’t catch on…

Ok so that’s my top 10 weird/funny lyrics from a rap song.  The list could go on to about 50, but I decided to spare y’all.  I challenge all 5 of my blog followers to use one of the quotes today during conversation.  Also, Happy Chick Fil A Appreciation Day!  I think there should be an Examiner Appreciation Day, where all the bankers come together and bring us lunch…I’ll keep dreaming.

Rain, Sleep, and Blogs

I love rainy days.  Does anyone remember the song “I’m Only Happy When It Rains” by Garbage?  Totally like 15 years ago.  Whenever it rains, I think of that song.  A bit random, I know. 

Any who…. So, lately I’ve been having a hard time sleeping- not that any of y’all care- but between pain in my foot/leg/hip/back and Scott rolling all night, I’m pretty much Sleepless in Birmingham.  My solutions: (1) get a new mattress (2) get a king size bed (3) take pain medicine before I sleep or (4) drink Nyquil.  I’m thinking a mixture of  #3 or #4 would be the best solution.

So out of boredom I decided to read some random blogs of people I don’t know.  This is what I’ve learned.

·         People are boring, incredibly boring.

·         Most “active” blogs are either about someone getting married, having a baby, obsessed with an animal, or that random weirdo who likes to blog about nothing at all (like myself)

·         A lot of blogs are like Pinterest, but with words

·         There is this thing lately where bloggers fill out a questionnaire to get more followers…not sure what that’s  all about.

·         The blogs with custom-made banners are normally the most active. 

I don’t think my finding will solve world peace, but it’s a start.

On a side note my beloved coworker, Beth, will be moving to greener pastures in 2 weeks.  While I’ll miss her perfectly put together outfits, talking about Brittany Spears and baby names, and dreaming of planning kids’ parties together, I know her decision to leave is the right one.  But don’t you worry people, she has a fabulous blog- full of Pinterest pictures, a custom made banner, make up, fashion, and all things southern:  http://ourmillerhighlife.blogspot.com/