"Key West Thoughts"

My friend in south carolina sent me a text Wednesday that said "Key West thoughts." I've been trying....

I keep looking around in amazement. It's such a mess. But at the same time, I'm completely awe struck because it's quite a beautiful mess.

Here's some pictures I took yesterday and today. I ditched my house for the comforts of electricity and internet at Bryan's house....

Ice Storm

Here's some pictures from my front door. We've been with out power since Tuesday at about 4:00pm. I keep walking into rooms and flipping light switches because I forget the power is out. Habit. It is just crazy. I heard the power line pop and fall tuesday night and then proceeded to be the nosey neighbor with my face pressed to the glass watching the firemen stand and look at it while they were deciding what to do. I am at my office now...enjoyed the electricity and charging both my computer and my cell phone! :) I took these two with my phone so they aren't too great.

My Love

I hadn't seen Hadleigh in SEVERAL weeks. It was WAYYYYYYYYYY too long. I hated it. Anyway, I stayed the night with her Friday night and saturday morning she woke up all smiles. Anyone who knows my brother knows exactly who she looks like. I do see Elizabeth in her...but she definitely has Joe's features. :)

New Year's Eve 2009

Bryan and I at midnight! HAPPY NEW YEAR

Lindsey, myself and Kati with our New Year's Eve Hats on! YAY!

Wow, it's 2009. I can't believe it. We had a dramatic change from our escapades in Vegas last year.....This year we brought in '09 in our pajamas on Colton Drive at the Bullington's! :) We had champagne and a chicken tray from Wal-Mart....and that's what I call the good life. We did some good singing on karaeoke revolution. Kati and I belted out our favorite Bette Midler song "wing beneath my wings" a couple of times.

Bryan and I stayed the night at Kati and Johnny's and we all got up and cooked breakfast and lounged around for a bit on New Year's Day. Well, I woke up early b/c I can hardly sleep in anymore and started cooking breakfast. I think my banging of pots and pans woke Kati and Johnny. :) I sometimes treat Kati's house as my own....I even have a key....that i refuse to return! haha

Bryan and I decided we wanted to run by the mall on the way home. I hadn't taken a shower...and was still wearing clothes from the night before but I thought...well I could just "run in." My "run in" turned into an ALL day shopping spree. I found bridesmaid shoes 1/2 of 1/2 on sale at Dillard's....and it was quite the project finding all 8 girls correct shoe size...BUT I DID IT. Well, I was short one pair of 6 1/2's, but Jeane saved the day and went to Dillard's in Little Rock and got them. YAY. We grabbed a late lunch with Bryan W and Lindsey and then Lindsey and I took off for Pinnacle. I bought my Granny a dress for the wedding that was also 1/2 of 1/2 at that Dillards. It was a successful day. My "run in" shopping spree put me home at 700pm that night.

I definitely associate New Year's Eve and the song Auld Lang Syne. I've always loved the song and wondered what Auld Lang Syne meant so finally one day I looked it up (googled it!:). So, in case anyone else was wondering, Auld Lang Syne literally translates to "Old Long Since" or "long long ago." It was orginally a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788

Auld Lang Syne:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind ?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and old times since ?

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !

And surely I’ll buy mine !

And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

Happy 2009 my friends!!!

Christmas Continued....

My granny doing her signature not looking at the camera move. :)

Gammaw and Hadleigh

Papa, Hadleigh, Joe and Dad

Ma, Mom, Hadleigh and Joe...Hadleigh says "No more pictures please!"

Christmas was a whirlwind. A whirlwind of fun, but a whirlwind none the less. It mainly involved a lot of driving and a lot of eating...both are OK with me! :) I'm paying for all that eating now. We ended up doing 6 different Christmas' with our families, plus a BONUS Christmas with Kati and Johnny and their family. :) Kati baked a homemade apple pie which is one of my FAVORITE desserts, and it was great! :) Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Kati and her Pie!
PS Kati hates apple pie. She said the smell of it made her sick while making it, but it's her husband's favorite pie. What a good wifey.

Christmas

I LOVE this picture. He looks like a big boy!

Checking out Granny Frances' Christmas Tree
Hadleigh loves Christmas presents...

smiling at her auntie. :)

I am half way done with Christmas celebrations. Bryan and I have done Christmas with his family. We have done Christmas with my mom. More to come. But here's some favorite pictures so far.....pretty much all my pictures are of Riley and Hadleigh...they seem to steal the show! :)

Christmas Party 08

The tree and the gift exchange items

Kati and Lindsey with Bryan jumping in.

I love Hadleigh's face in this picture. :)

Bryan and I borrowing Hadleigh for our picture! :) Hey, she's not crying in ours. Being aunt and uncle is fun! :)
Jeane's gift to me. Hairspray. She knows me TOO well. I just realized I'm holding this hairspray bottle the same way I was holding Hadleigh. I'm crazy.

Bryan and I had our 3rd annual Christmas Party this Saturday. It was SO much fun. We really enjoyed ourselves, and it was great to have all of our friends there. We always do a gift exchange, and this year's was really fun/funny. It's always a good assortment of movies, games, and unexpected mess. The first year we had our party, Patrick's gift he brought to exchange was a copy of the movie Brokeback Mountain. :) Nobody wanted it. Well, this was our 3rd year Brokeback has made a comeback to the party. My brother Joe brought it back because he ended up with is last year. I had completely forgotten about it. Now the torch has been passed to Matt, he's now obligated to come to our party next year to keep the Brokeback Mountain tradition going. :)

We made this recipe for a Pomegranate Sipper as our drink for the evening and I thought it turned out well. It smells great, and made the whole house smell good while Bryan and I were making it Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 (2 1/2-inch-long) cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
5 thin fresh ginger slices
2 (16-oz.) bottles refrigerated 100% pomegranate juice
4 cups white grape juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
Garnishes: pineapple chunks, orange rind curls
Preparation
1. Cook cinnamon stick, cloves, and ginger in a Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes or until cinnamon is fragrant.
2. Gradually stir in juices. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes. Pour mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into a heat-proof pitcher; discard solids. Serve warm. Garnish, if desired.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice and Welch's 100% White Grape Juice.
Tipsy Hot Spiced Pomegranate Sipper: Prepare recipe as directed. Stir in 1 1/4 cups almond liqueur just before serving. Makes 9 1/4 cups.
Cold Spiced Pomegranate Sipper: Prepare recipe as directed. Let stand 30 minutes. Cover and chill 2 hours. Store in refrigerator up to 2 days. Stir and serve over ice. Prep: 10 min., Cook: 25 min., Stand: 30 min., Chill: 2 hr.
Fizzy Spiced Pomegranate Sipper: Prepare Cold Spiced Pomegranate Sipper as directed. Stir in 1 (33.8-oz.) bottle ginger ale just before serving. Makes 16 cups.

****We chilled, fizzied, and tipsied ours. The almond liqueur was just a little something without making it crazy punch.