05.10.11

Not much to say about these-- we had a fantastic Mother's Day with my family. 

I'm incredibly blessed to have such a great mom (and dad!). 

girl's trip

**warning--looooong, rambling post ahead!!**

 

 Last Thursday, I headed to Memphis for the J*nior Auxiliaries Annual Education Conference with 6 other JARB members. Last year the conference was in Mobile and was a blast-- so I knew this year in Memphis would be a good time.

I took a few pictures-- mostly pretty random shots on my cell phone, but here are a few: 

 After we checked into our hotel- the Downtown Marriott, we took the trolley down to a few restaurants & bars. We made a stop at The Peabody (you know, the place with the ducks!). I couldn't believe how crowded it was on a Thursday night-- apparently The Peabody is the place to be! 

We ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant called The Majestic Grille. The food was fantastic, and the drinks were even better. (as you can see from all our empty glasses!)

on the way back to the hotel, the girls were quick to point out this convenience store named after my Jack Bauer, of course!

 The next morning was another trolley ride, this time to a great little cafe for breakfast:

 Here's where the pictures get random-- most of our time was spent in meetings, but we did take breaks for shopping at the conference galleria:

 I bought this bag--- how perfect is it for me?!!? The dog even looks like Jack!! The galleria is always my favorite part-- tons of little boutiques selling J*nior Auxiliary themed stuff (our logo is a crown, so they slap a crown on EVERYTHING!) and lots of non-JA stuff too. I might have bought a different JA shirt for every day of the week. ;-) I just couldn't help myself!

So all day Friday and Saturday we're in meetings and listening to motivational speakers. Saturday night is the banquet:

so many women in one place!

 

Julie & I- she's the incoming President of JARB, and I'm the incoming 1st & 2nd VP. 

 group photo

  one of these desserts is not like the others... ;-)  

 me with three of our new provisional members

The trip was so much fun! I don't know if I've ever laughed harder just hanging out in the hotel room with these girls. We had our first Executive Board meeting on Monday and I can already tell it's going to be a fabulous year and we're going to be able to serve the children of Benton County in so many ways.

labor of love

I've been planning our annual Installation Luncheon for the J*nior Auxiliary forever-- and it's almost here! I put the finishing touches on the gift bag/awards that will be handed out tomorrow. I'll be taking tons of pictures-- it should be really cute!

Is this thing on?

*peeking in*

Hi.

I haven't blogged in ages. I always hit a lull in blogging when it starts to get nice outside. I'd rather be outside DOING than inside blogging. And holy hell, I've been busy!! I told Mike the other day that I think I'm busier now than when I had a full-time job outside the home. (I'm not complaining, I know I'm lucky!)  I've stepped up my volunteering with the animal shelter- I'm not just walking dogs now, I'm also working at their adoption events. I've also accepted two board positions with the J*nior Auxiliary (if you're not familiar, think J*nior League for smaller cities). 

But the biggest thing I've become a part of is CASA. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. I went through a few weeks of training, some court observation and was sworn in a couple of weeks ago. Basically, if a judge deems it necessary, he/she requests that a CASA be assigned to a case. It's my job to be the voice for the child in the court. These are kids that for one reason or another have been removed from their home and placed in foster care. I interview foster parents, biological parents, teachers etc, visit with the child a few times a month and try to figure out what is best for the child. I'll write court reports before each hearing and I'll stay with the case until either the child returns home or is adopted. I was just assigned my first case-- please keep me in your thoughts!!

Mike and I have also been doing some fun things-- little weekend trips here and there. And since a post isn't a post without a picture:

this was taken last weekend.

A Painting, Gel Nails, and Robin Hood

this is a post of randoms, forgive me.

I got a gel manicure last week and I love it! It's just a nail polish that is cured under UV light so it lasts a loooong time. Supposedly for 2-3 weeks! I'm on week two and it still looks great. Above is the picture a day after I had it done and below is the 1 week picture. Now, what am I not crazy about? How freaking short the manicurist trimmed my nails! What in the world?? I didn't notice until it was too late. Boo.

Friday, I picked up the painting we had done of Jack Bauer--- I love it!!

Speaking of JB, here he is lounging on top of Mike while we watched movies on Sunday.

And finally, I was appalled to learn that my dear husband has never seen the Disney version of Robin Hood!!

It came out in the early 70's and was one of my favorite Disney movies when i was little. I'm determined to find it on dvd and make him watch it.

hair ch-ch-ch-changes

Just changing it up a little bit for spring! I got a hair cut & highlights. It's shorter than it has been in the past and I really like it! I wanted it a little bit edgier/funkier and I think I achieved it. The awesome thing about my hair is that if I decided I like it a bit longer-- in 3 weeks it will be right back where I started. :) 

Now for picture overload:

I like!

I made this!

Get ready for way too many pictures of the process, but I'm PROUD!! I took the class from a man here in my little town. He's an amazing artist and holds these classes occasionally. I was really excited to get a spot! He has a studio in his house-- and it was only about 5 minutes from me.

I started by picking a pattern. I went with an art deco piece-- I wanted to use lots of color, so it was perfect. After tracing the pattern on a light box, I started cutting the glass. NOT EASY!! haha.

after I cut everything, I used this grinder to make the size and shape more precise. This was surprisingly fun.

after cutting & grinding, I wrapped each piece with copper tape. It had to be exactly even on both sides-- a little bit tedious!

 The following Saturday, we met again to finish up. I learned how to use a soldering iron! 

I soldered everything together-- this was the hardest part, by far! 

here's my teacher, Don, helping another student.

  

 after the soldering, came the cleaning:

then the polishing:

 and it was finished!! All in all, about 10 hours of work-- but it was really a lot of fun!!

  here it is in the sun. It's definitely not perfect but I love it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I've always loved Valentine's Day-- when I was a little kid, when I was single and especially now that I'm married. We're going low key this year: Mike volunteered to cook dinner and I made cupcakes for dessert. Amazing vegan cupcakes from a new cookbook. I guarantee you wouldn't be able to tell they were vegan. Insanely good! 

 our table set, ready for Mike to cook dinner!

I got Mike a few nerdy gifts he's been wanting and I have no idea what he got me--- but he's in his office right  now wrapping it! haha! Hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day!

Wonder Woman!

Growing up, I was a huge Wonder Woman fan. I thought she was a total bad ass. As an adult, I'm a huge MAC fan-- and was really excited when I heard they were doing a Wonder Woman collection. I stopped by my favorite MAC counter yesterday and picked up a few things.

I'm a sucker for the packaging-- so creative and cute!

 This is the Wonder Woman Mineralize Skinfinish in Golden Lariat (love the name!). It's basically a blusher, bronzer & highlighter in one compact. And it's freaking huge (because remember, Wonder Woman was an Amazon) haha! Like twice the size of my normal compacts.

 Next is the Wonder Woman Lipglass in Emancipation. I love MAC's lipglosses. 

 It's also oversized-- even the applicator is larger than normal. Love it!

Last is Wonder Woman Opulash in Victorious. 

It's a very subtle violet mascara and looks great with my green eyes.

I love my MAC and I love this collection! So much fun!

more of the same

 It's pretty difficult to blog when there is nothing going on... just lots of snow, movie watching, cooking, playing board games etc. Nothing particularly exciting but it's really been a fantastic week. Mike was able to work from home all week, which was such a blessing. The roads have been a total nightmare and I like knowing he's safe here at home... plus I'm selfish, and I'll take all the time with him that I can get! The dogs have been playing outside constantly-- I really have to force Jack Bauer to come in and warm up.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday! We're supposed to get some more snow tonight and then another huge storm Tuesday/Wednesday.