Another Week with Me...

Happy Birthday to Me...the big 33

 

This time around it's time to celebrate MY birthday y'all!!  Well, I turned the big 33 this past Monday and boy am I tired!!  I spent the day working...as a grown-up should.  However, my day was brightened so with all of the numerous birthday wishes.  Starting with my family as soon as I woke up!  Actually, my honey snuggled close to me in bed after midnight Sunday night and wished me Happy Birthday which is always oh so nice :-)  After we woke up the morning of my b-day he and Brook presented me with such special gifts.  Brooklyn gave me a birthday card and grinned from ear to ear  with her eyebrows raised in anticipation while I read it as if she had read and picked it out herself...lol!  She also gave me a gift card to Charlotte Russe which is one of my absolute fave quick stops to get some cute clothes.  If she could, I could see her picking that out as she's spent numerous hours against her will in there with me while I shop...lol!  As for my wonderful hubby----well, I'm going to see Beyonce y'all!!!  Yaayyyyy!!!  OMG-- I gotta get some new clothes (and some new hair) for that concert!!...lol!   I can't wait!!  I decided not to kick it quite as hard this time around on my birthday and opted for a quiet dinner with my immediate family and the 2 people who have celebrated my birthday with me every year- my parents.  Of course, this intimate outing wouldn't have been complete without hearing the story of my birth which I hear every year yet learn something I hadn't heard the year before EVERY time...lol!

This year I also had only the second surprise party I've ever had in my entire life but this time it was from my co-workers at one of my jobs.  Although it wasn't on my actual birthday it was still sooooo special to me that they thought of me this way!!  My good friend/former boss/ co-worker Bren decorated the pharmacy and made this brownie that was sooooo good I wanted to slap myself...lol!!  The secret kill--- she made a frosting for it out of peanut butter...OMG!!  For all of my VA pharmacy employees who read my blog get ready...Mama said she might try to make this for y'all one day!  There I did it---I let the cat out of the bag...lol!
Anyhoo--- special thanks to Bren, Mary, and Paige for making by birthday time this year even more special than I would have ever expected!!

Hair Update

Well...I'm still having fun with whatever I think looks good on me.  That's the update.  There's stuff I try and I really like and some things I absolutely hate.  So in this segment of Hair Update I'll feature my grades for all of the hairdos I've tried recently as either LOVED IT or HATED IT.  Let's get started shall we?

The first pic you see is some curly crochet braids with highlighted hair that I really didn't like.  I kept them in 24 hours to see if they would grown on me and I'd change my mind but I woke up the next morning and hated them even more. So glad I'm able to do these myself.  I would have been disgusted had I actually paid someone to do those.  I actually wore them to worship team rehearsal that night and one of the other girls on the team complimented me on them.  I told her I felt like I was channeling my inner Shene-ne and that all I needed was some bamboo earrings and fuchsia lipstick.  I cut them out less than an hour later.  Yuck!!

HATED IT!!


I actually did straighten my hair out recently and managed to put it into this braided style inspired by one of the girls I follow on YouTube.  I wore it a few days with a few clip in hair pieces throughout to create a long braided ponytail at the side.  People were calling me Pocahontas with that.  However a few days later, I took the extension pieces out and just twirled my own hair into a twisted bun with the braids and it turned into a really pretty soft pulled back style.  Either way, I had a winner!

 LOVED IT!!

                                         

LOVED IT!!

 I also got a few new wigs.  The first here is a piece that has bangs on it with the curly hair which I'm really digging.  It gets a little hot and itchy around my face now that the temperature's getting a little out of control so I might have to put her up until the fall, but still a definite must keep!!

    LOVED IT!!!

The other wig I purchased looks too wiggy for me!!!  It's a lace front that looked amazing on the mannequin in the store but a wretched mess on me!!  I think I might put this one up for sale or donate it or something.  I just can't do it!!  It's sooooo not me...

  HATED IT!!!

Last but certainly not least is the ultimate for any girl who likes wearing a good sew-in.  Since my hair was already still straightened out, I decided I'd try a sew in.  However, I decided to do it via making a v-part wig for myself.  So, what in the world am I talking about??  To do that, you take a men's dome cap (because it's not as stretchy as a nylon wig cap) and sew your hair tracks on the cap as you would sew them onto your braided hair except you leave a v out in the front in the center of it with no hair sewn on.  Then,  you cut that part of the cap out.  After that, I sewed (if that's a word) some hair comb clips at the opening of the v to secure the cap on to my head and pulled my hair out and over the other hair to blend.  Since the hair I used was curly, I simply had to put a few curls in my hair with a curling iron and voila!!  Super simple in the bathroom in the morning every morning....however with natural hair and hair extensions and the humid summer time in Arkansas the cuteness of it would only last me from home to wherever I got out of my car and had to walk outside at.  Oh well....I'll try it again in the fall.  I still loved it though!!

  LOVED IT!!!

 I'm working with some pharmacy interns over the summer this summer and have an opportunity to see them each twice a week.  It's become so fun to me to see and hear their reactions each time they see me..lol!  They are so complimentary of my ever-changing style and say they have just as much fun in anticipation of what I'm going to look like the next time...lol!  I love it!

Brooklyn's First Field Trip

I was recently able to participate in a milestone occasion for Brooklyn as she went on her first field trip with her little class at preschool.  They went to the zoo!! Yes...the outside zoo.  It actually wasn't too bad though.  I just knew Brooklyn would want to ride with me since I was coming but she was having none of that!! She wanted to ride on the bus with her friends and her teachers.  Actually all the kids did.  There were so many parents who came to help and were having to get their kids' seats out of their cars and load them onto the bus unexpectedly.  So being with the crowd starts at 3 years old??!!! Sheeeshhhh!! 

Suzy Homemaker

On this edition of Suzy Homemaker I'm starting with the fact that Suzy cooked again!!  This time, it was the meatballs again that we discussed on the post with the spaghetti and meatballs.  These are the same meatballs basically made out of meatloaf mixture only I used lean ground beef this time instead of turkey.  Instead of doing pasta and marinara sauce, I made a gravy sauce that was simple yet delicious.  It consisted of cream of mushroom soup,  a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, and some chicken broth.  After baking the meatballs, I simmered them in that sauce.  Then I paired them with some creamy mashed potatoes and French style green beans.  Woo woo woo woo (as Martin Lawrence would say...lol)  It all looked a lot better than this picture.  The picture looks kind of weird...lol!

Well Suzy cooked and then quickly turned it over to her loving husband Sammy Homemaker...aka Kelvin..lol!
Sammy turned it out on the grill this past weekend to cook some meat for the weekend and beginning of the week.  What was manifested of that was grilled catfish, cajun sausage links, a blue cheese burger patty, and grilled chicken breasts...dang!!!  I knew I married that man for some reason...lol!!

Brooklyn Photo Dump

Just decided to share some silly and some sweet shots from my phone of my girl.  I just love being this little girl's mommy!!

Fitness Update

On this fitness update I'm happy to inform you that I am still 15 pounds lighter this summer than I was last.  My main focus is keeping it off happily not grudgingly.  So, I decided to keep some old fundamentals and add some fun workouts to my regimen.  One thing's for sure, I am not doing any outdoor running until it cools down again.  I have also been taking my sweet time about getting back out there on my bike.  I did add something new though... Mr. Shaun T ...lol!  Still not understanding the pucker on the lip cover but believe me, it's not a part of my workout...lol!  So, I'm sitting in my bed late one night watching a marathon of R&B Divas which I had never seen before and every time it goes to commercial break I'm seeing this dang Hip Hop Abs commercial.  So, I'm thinking, "I can do $19.95. I paid more for that buying that bike and all those clothes I like to run in."  I've done it twice now since it came in and I really like it!  My biggest mistake was thinking I could get Brooklyn to do it with me though.  After 5 minutes she wants me to turn it off and decides to get in her feelings if I don't....so yet another workout I'll have to do when she's not around which is few and far between unless I'm working or I'm in the bed at night...ugghhh!!  The other part of my fitness update are my new favorite sweet treats....say hello to my little friends...so not fitness update fitting...but oh well...don't judge me..lol!!

GNO

I've decided to incorporate GNO into the blog now everybody!  GNO known to some amateurs as Girls Night Out (lol) was begun with me and Mama back after I graduated from pharmacy school.  Once a week every week we would get together and hang.  This could be going out to eat, doing a little shopping, or just sitting around the house and talking our heads off over some good food.  Since 2009, we've had another girl or two or three to join us and that makes it even better.  However, we are now pretty consistently on a 3 girl GNO standing outing.  So, each blog post I'll post a picture of something we've done lately.  This week it's pics from our trip to TGI Friday's.  Every Thursday night Friday's has $3 appetizers and $3 drinks.  However, it tastes that way too.  It was so not the bomb...lol!  We still had a good time though...

My Sense of Humor...

Are there any other pickle lovers, pharmacists, or pharmacy technicians that find either one of these pictures and their contents intensely funny??  lol!!

 

So much more to say but this post has been long enough already....we'll pick up the favorite things section next time...stick with me.

Thanks for reading!!...or looking at the pics