Welcome, December...How The Heck Did You Get Here So Fast!

Holy moly tomorrow is December 1st. Where on earth has this year gone? Time for Christmas trees, lights, gifts and tons of holiday parties but not without the start of the Season and the Tree Lighting at Macy's!

Macys Tree after it was lit and the fireworks show!

Mike, Lauren and I closed out Thanksgiving and welcomed Christmas at the Macy's Tree Lighting down at Lenox Mall. I've lived in Atlanta since 1991 and have NEVER gone so I was really excited about attending this year, sore legs and all from running the half marathon earlier in the day. It was chilly, but not too bad and at best, packed with a bunch of festive fools who didn't have a whole lot of manners but at least were jolly.

with Lauren

struggling to stand post half marathon!

Guess I should start my Christmas shopping...Only 26 days left to get it all done and I haven't really even started considering what to get! OY VEY!

Yummy in Your Tummy

For our HHBC this month, the theme is Fall! I picked a dessert to make and of course knew exactly what to bring. The Evans Family favorite...Kentucky Derby Pie!

My mom has been making this dessert for as long as I can remember and she graciously passed down this yummy in your tummy recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tbs bourbon or whiskey
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 2 nine inch pie shells

Directions:

1. Combine butter, sugar and corn syrup
2. Add bourbon and eggs; mix well
3. Fold in nuts and chocolate
4. Pour into pie shells
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. 
6. Chill and serve with ice cream or cool whip! 

Kentucky Derby Pie is a great compliment to any holiday dinner or dessert for a group of friends! I hope you enjoy!

Happy Easter Weekend!

For the first time in 5 years I've had to work on Good Friday ... but it wasn't such a bad deal since we had the shower today. However, now I'm packing up for the weekend to head home. I shall leave you with this adorable little image I found on my computer today ... probably from last Easter!

photo credit

So with that, I shall wish all of you a wonderful Easter holiday weekend. Hope you get to enjoy it with some of the people you love and most of all, remember the reason for why we have this holiday ... and no, it's not for the 'peep' show in the image above!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To all my wee little Irish friends out there and to those who love green beer and an excuse to pinch people ...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

in my St. Patrick's day finest ... yeah not gonna lie, this was a few years ago when I was still a party animal!

AJC Peachtree Road Race : An Atlanta Tradition

The AJC Peachtree Road Race is a Fourth of July tradition for so many people. As long as you registered on time, you were entered. You got to enjoy 6.2 miles lined with fans and supporters as you run/walk past. There's tons of music, water/gatorade/food stops along the way making this race very enjoyable. 

Mike and I from the 2010 Peachtree Road Race

Well, that's not really the story this year. The AJC and Atlanta Track Club have decided to increase the participants from 55,000 to 60,000 thus instituting a lottery system to enter. Starting today and continuing through March 24th, prospective runners can enter the lottery. While you have to fill out all the necessary information for racing (credit card info, shirt size, emergency contact), you're not guaranteed a spot in the biggest 10k in the world on the Fourth of July. Everyone who enters the lottery will be notified whether or not they are "accepted" to participate by March 29th. 

Excerpts from the AJC article about the new process

"The 2011 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race will have a field of 60,000, an increase of 5,000. The Atlanta Track Club also will change the entry process to a lottery format in hopes of making the system fairer and less frantic. "All applications will have an equal chance of being accepted. Runners who have competed in 10 or more Peachtrees will receive special consideration."

If you're interested in entering the lottery, here's the link to get your name in the hat! Good luck and good training whether you're selected or not!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

While I know it's another Monday and a silly "Hallmark Holiday", I still love Valentine's Day. I tell Mike and those close to me that I love them all the time, but feel like today is a day to really make those who matter to you feel loved. I knew I'd want to be in a good mood today, so I hit up BLAST900 up early at 5:45 to get my morning started. When I got in my car, my navigation popped up a little note.

Guess this was his idea of a card? Either way, it was super sweet and cute. I wish it would stay on all day, but it only pops up the first time you start it up in the morning. Baby Kona and I got Mike some Valentine's Day cards and left them on the counter for him this morning.Got to work and had some chocolate waiting on my from my coworkers. They are too kind. Even though I'm watching what I eat and all, today is a splurge day (hence the workout in the AM!).

A little Valentine elf, perhaps Cupid himself, delivered some goodies as well.They are just too cute to eat! For now they can sit and stare at me from my desk! Mike really does like to make me feel special! Really looking forward to our dinner date tonight at Restaurant Eugene! I'll be sure to re-cap and give my $0.02 on how awesome the joint is.

To everyone out there in blogger-land, whether you "follow" and identify yourself or not, Happy Valentine's Day. Hope you enjoy it with the one you love, animal you love, or doing something that you love. If for nothing else, do something for yourself today! Everyone deserves to feel loved and special!

All You Need Is Love

photo via here

Mike and I have decided to hit up one of Atlanta's little gems for Valentine's Day. While we haven't been to this restaurant before, we have heard nothing but rave reviews about it. Located on Peachtree Road in the heart of Buckhead, Restaurant Eugene is one of a kind.

Focusing on local farmers and creating dishes from scratch, Restaurant Eugene doesn't disappoint. Through supporting local farmers and suppliers they were able to start a Saturday morning farmers market just a few blocks away to ensure that their deliveries are fresh and local. This open air farmers market allows the public to also come and mingle, meet the farmers themselves and the ability to purchase local grown fruits, veggies and other healthy food! Typically we try to hit up this farmers market a few times a month. It's a great place to get veggies, health food and a quick and healthy lunch on a Saturday.

We're looking forward to heading to Restaurant Eugene on Valentine's for their 4-course pre-fixed menu. I can't wait to see what they serve us and to soak up the atmosphere. Post dinner we'll head home to hang out with Miss Kona and share the Valentine's love with her too since she's our baby girl!

No matter if you're spending Valentine's with your boyfriend, husband, wife, best friend or puppy... spend it with someone that you love and enjoy!

Hello 2011, Nice to Meet You!

Happy 2011! I can't believe a new year is already upon us and so much of last year is just left in the dust. I feel like it's a new beginning for me and a new attitude has somehow been transformed without trying ... for now at least. I'm not making "resolutions" so much, more so "changes I'd like to see and goals" this way, if for some reason they fail or I stumble along the way, I don't feel as silly!


Goals/Changes I'd like to take place for 2011
-Keep up the good attitude! I'm quick and easy to get defensive, yell and even times get aggressive. This is something that I've seen develop over the years and get more prevalent in the last few. It hurts my friends, family and mostly, Mike as he is the brunt of it typically. It's not fair and I promised him and myself I'd work on changing. So far as of day 4...we're doing good!
-Be healthy and Stay healthy! I'm not one to say, "I'm going to lose 15lbs this year" and actually do it. Unfortunately, I can say that's never happened though it's always been a "resolution" of mine. This year, while I'm up against fitting in my wedding dress and looking good on my big day and every other day past it, I've started to focus my energy on being healthy. Eating right, working out, splurging when I deserve it and overall general wellness.
-Be better, financially! I've got a little bit of debt...when I say little, I'm talking under $4,000...but debt none the less. Mike and I want to start clean and fresh with none of this in our path when we get married. I've made the decision to pay it off long before our wedding day. I've got 116 days (from today) to get it done. While this means less shopping and less splurging on random things, it also means I'll be able to be financially sound, get a new car and hopefully start saving more of my money to contribute to our future home and items.

What have you decided you'd like to work on for 2011? If you picked some things, how are you doing so far?

I hope each of you reading this, whether you identify yourself or not had a wonderful New Years and I shall leave you with some photos of our NYE party!

Courtney, Devon and I with Dublin

Some of the HHB's

with my favorite man!

2010 Santa Pub Crawl

An Atlanta December tradition. I've attended the Atlanta Santa Pub Crawl the past 4 years. Every year it gets better and bigger! The entrance to the Pub Crawl is a gift for Toys for Tots. Each year it starts off at Front Page News, where you drop your toy and start your boozing. By 6pm and the second bar, the streets and bars of Midtown in Atlanta are filled with Santas, slutty elfs, reindeers and all the other Holiday characters you can imagine.

Here are some shots from this years Pub Crawl...

hanging at Deadwood Saloon

Santa's ladies!

Santa and his favorite reindeer

holy Santas everywhere

best looking santas around

Holy Moly It's Cold as..... Guacamole?!

How is it Monday again already!?

photo via Google

Holy Moly it's chilly outside! I know we live in the South and all, but a high of 39 for the day is just chilly no matter where you are! Good thing I was up early to take Miss Kona out and was able to put a big ole thing of chili (thanks Julie for the awesome recipe!) in the crockpot so we have something yummy and warm for dinner tonight!

On the note of being chilly and Christmas time rolling around, I finally finished my Christmas shopping this weekend. Took me around 3 hours and a few trips to both the mall and a few other stores, but I'm DONE! I played a little elf and wrapped them all too! I love wrapping gifts! I can't believe that Christmas is only 21 days away. Where in the world has the year 2010 gone. I can't believe how much time flies the older we get! What I really want for Christmas, a time stopper thingy like Hermione had in Harry Potter 3!

Also, I just had a nerve wracking experience and was sick to my tummy, but it's all over and done. The invitations have been approved and I have submitted my list for printing. We're 145 days away and that was a BIG thing to check off the list. My total number of invites stands at 90....a whopping 179 total number of people invited. A little more than my sweet mother wanted, but overall I think we'll be happy with the number that can actually attend. I'll have my invites here in a mere 2-3 weeks and I'll be sure to share just how awesome they turned out! Once they are here I've got to package them, seal them and stamp them all up ...  then wait patiently til March 9th to put them in the mail. I can't wait for RSVP's to start scampering back in! In other wedding news, some sweet friends are throwing us showers at the start of the New Year! We can't wait to celebrate with everyone and get the parties started!

Speaking of marriage and all, Mike and I have been together 2.5 years today! Seems like just yesterday we started dating and now we're on our way to getting hitched! Nothing big planned tonight, just hanging out and keeping warm while playing with Miss Kona.

Hope you stay warm today!

Turkey Earned!

The Atlanta Half Marathon and Thanksgiving 5K kicked off on a slightly muggy, yet mild Thanksgiving morning. It took us what seemed like FOREVER to get to the parking lot since the highway full of runners was a total parking lot. Mike and I and some of our friends were all racing and then meeting up to take pictures and gab about the course/times and maybe even drink a beer :)

While they were all running the Half Marathon, I stuck to the 5K. My goal, though I haven't been training, was to finish in under 40 minutes. Needless to say, I made that happen. Coming in at a solid (barely under) 39 minutes. I was content yet not too pleased as I wished I had done better ... say 30-36 minutes. I've deduced since the race that I need to work on my cadence and speed work to get faster. While I was able to run much further and longer during this race than ever before, I hope to be running a 10K full steam by February and a half marathon by end of March.

Maria, Courtney and I post race and facing RIGHT into the sun

our crew post race

Needless to say, we all earned our turkey this Thanksgiving. Congrats to everyone who raced and earned theirs too!

While I enjoyed the Mexico sun and fun, it's nice to be home where everyone speaks your language and you don't have to worry about getting sick off the food/water on a regular basis. I'll be sure to upload some photos from our trip in a bit so you can see what we got into while in Tulum, Mexico.

This year has FLOWN by! I can't believe next week we'll be bellying up to a table for Thanksgiving Dinner. But before that happens and before I blow a TON of money at the mall on Friday, I've got to get through the next few days! My bestie from LA will be here next week and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER!!!!!!

Tomorrow Lauren, Kerri, Mike and I head to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs. Georgia State football game. Yes, I realize this is going to be a massacre of a game, and while yes, I realize that it's silly for taking the day off to go...I'm going anyways! We got tickets through some other friends and I can't wait to get back to Tuscaloosa! I haven't been in a game in Bryant-Denny Stadium since 2005. I've been to other SEC games and even down to Jacksonville to watch the Tide play, but I'm ecstatic to be heading back to my old college stomping grounds and having a good time. Not to mention, this will be Mike's first trip to Tuscaloosa!

Friday night is surprise date night. Mike has had this planned for months! I have a sneaky suspicion of what it might be, but I guess I'll have to wait to fully find out. Here's what I know...it's an indoor/outdoor event and we've got to leave at 5:30pm. My guess, Cirque du Soleil's OVO show at Atlantic Station, but who knows, I could be wrong, but I sure hope I'm right! Check back to see how I did at the guessing game on Monday!

photo from google.com

Saturday is Friendsgiving. What's Friendsgiving you ask...well it's when 50 of our friends get together for a pot-luck style dinner. It typically turns into mayhem and craziness but none-the-less a good time. While my time at Friendsgiving will be cut short this year, I hope that everyone else has a blast and I'll be sure to link up to some photos after it happens. Also on tap, Jason Aldean/Luke Bryan concert on Saturday night (hence why I'll not be at Friendsgiving very long!) with Kerri and Tricia! Can't wait to party and see some of country musics hottest singers right now! Kerri's dad scored us some tickets to the show and if its anything like our last concert trip to the same arena when we saw Keith Urban...watch out! I'm also hoping to watch Harry Potter 7 this weekend. While I wont get to see it with Stephanie since she's in Egypt, I'll be sure to skype her and say Harry Potter in my famous English creepy voice!

I hope to be able to blog more in the coming days once all this mess gets out of the way and I have some free time on my hands while on Thanksgiving break!

All of this makes my head spin round just looking at what's going on for the next week or so. Then its on to Thanksgiving and December and Santa will be here before we know it. Wedding meets ramp up big time next month as well as a trip to Nashville to see Garth Brooks! Can't wait to see what the rest of 2010 holds and even more excited about 2011!!

Halloween Re-Cap

Here'es a re-cap in photos of my Halloween weekend!

at Jaemor Farms! Almost an exact replica of our picture from 2009

playing the duck game!

Lots of apples to sling! 

at Heidi's halloween party!

Sandy and a Peacock

Court, Devo and I

Who could imagine 3 outa 4 would be there!

with my telletubby fiance!

Birds of a feather....

Erin and Jon at the party!

Overall, Halloween weekend was AWESOME! Once I see some photos from the driveway tailgate/candy passing out party on Sunday, I'll post those too!

Happy Halloween Week!

BOO! Did I scare you? I'm guessing not, either way, Happy Halloween week! 

I love this time of year! The fun costumes, parties, fun Halloween treats and drinks and of course, scary things! I've got a full week ahead, mostly NOT of Halloween fun, but I do have some on the horizon. 

I kicked off Halloween week by going on the Roswell Ghost Tour with my friend, Lauren, last night. We didn't see any ghosts per se, but we did catch some orbs on camera (stand by we'll blog about it on Lauren's blog!) and got chills in certain places and some strange things with breathing/tight chest when approaching scary locations. Overall, I suggest checking out this tour if you live i n the Atlanta area, though recommend not going Halloween week as it was pretty packed and choc full of kids. 

On tap this spooky week, I'll head to Jaemor Farms on Friday night with some of my girlfriends to do our yearly corn maze. This one is tons of fun, especially with a libation or two! Looking forward to catching up with these gals and getting lost for hours on end! 

Mike and I (along with about 40 others in full costume) will attend the 'Nightmare at Grant Park' Halloween party thrown by our friends Heidi and Matt at their house on Saturday night. Our costumes are cute and fun...I'm going as a Peacock and well, I can't tell you what Mike's going as just yet...check back next week for the reveal and photos from the party! 

Sunday night (actual Halloween) Mike and I will also head up to my BFF and MOH Kerri's house for a Halloween party and to hand out candy to kids in their neighborhood! Since we live in a high-rise condo, it's kinda hard to have trick-or-treaters! Can't wait to take our children one day and to live in a home where we can participate in handing out candy to little kiddies! 

Hope you have a spook-tacular week and get to enjoy some Halloween fun! 

Happy Birthday, America!

One of my favorite holiday's of the year, 4th of July, just passed. I can't remember a 4th that I haven't been at the pool, lake or beach. This year I decided to switch it up and run the Peachtree Road Race AND hit up the lake.

I haven't been training for the Peachtree Road Race. A full 10k (6.2 miles) chock full of hills, tons of supporters, great music and lots of water stops. This race is the largest 10k in the world. Around 55,000 people run and another 3,000 volunteers make this race a great time and a 4th of July tradition in Atlanta. Still waiting for my "official" photos, but here is what it looks like at the start! My goal was to finish (remember, I haven't been running in months) in under 1.5 hours and well, I did that! I could have done better, but was pretty proud of myself.

We headed up to Lake Rabun (located in North GA) later that day to celebrate the 4th with good friends and family. The Campbell family welcomed all the crew up for the weekend, too bad we were only there Sunday and Monday! Here are some shots from the lake!

Mike and Todd on the Tube!
Watching Fireworks on the boat
Pretty Fireworks!
Jump, Mike, Jump!
Kyle, Kerri, Mike and I on the dock at the lake!

What did you do to celebrate?