Past few weeks...

Work is getting a little better so hopefully I will be able to post back in my regularly routine.

Where to start...
My friend, Lindsay and her husband are expecting their first child!!!! I cannot wait! He/she is due to arrive a month before my wedding.

This past weekend I got the chance to catch up with a lot of friends. We had so much fun. Going out just isn't my cup of tea anymore, but every once in a while is nice!

This week or next our honeymoon will be booked! We're going to JAMAICA! This was such a hard decision to make. Thought about the Alaskan Cruise, Chicago, Florida, etc. but in the end the ALL EXCLUSIVE wins hands down.

I've set myself a wedding deadline with wedding decor. Want to have it all finished by the end of April. This summer there isn't going to be much time to do anything wedding related. I have a wedding in May, three weddings in June, bachelorette party, showers, baby shower for Lindsay, Danielle's showers and bachelorette party, etc. It's going to be one busy summer!

Last Monday night I hit a nice 9 pointer with my car! Luckily it was standing slightly off the road otherwise it could have been a bad deal. I was meeting two cars which the first one either had their bright lights on or their lights in general was just that bright. So it was already hard to see and as the second car was coming then BAM there was the deer so I had no choice, but to hit it. :( It wasn't even looking at me so I probably wouldn't have seen it until the last minute anyway. So here is $5,100 worth of damage!

This makes #3 for me and hopefully the last!!!!

Wednesday Ramblings

...My blogging may be very sparse the next few months. Sorry in advance. Long story short, corporate made big changes with our staff. :(

...Still thinking about moms yummy homemade chicken pot pie she made on Sunday!

...So far there is NO plans this weekend and I think I would like to keep it that way! Ready for some 'me' time!

...Last weekend I helped out a friend paint her floors in her house. I don't think we literally got 'high' from all the fumes, but we were pretty giggly. :)

...Knock on wood I haven't been sick this fall or winter. I've had a few sniffles here and there, but nothing drastic to where I had to miss work.

...Some wedding details are going to have to change. Really disappointed and sad with this one...

...Took my belly ring out about a month ago. I regret getting one since I'm almost positive it will show two brown spots once it closes up. Oh well guess it could look worse, plus it's not like I go around showing my belly all the time. lol

...Bloggers out there, have you tried the new blogger interface? Well it's not really new new. I had tried it twice and I keep going back to the old version. There is some things I don't like about it.

{Thank goodness it's Friday} Quote of the Day!

Wednesday Ramblings

...I've been seeing this site on my hotmail and I thought I would pass it along.... www.zulily.com It has cheap outfits, few toys, etc. I love it! I'm keeping my eyes open for Kylie a birthday present and a flower girl dress. You can't beat cheap! :)

...www.save-on-crafts.com <<<<<< And this site!

...Still dreaming about Planters chocolate covered cashews. Can't believe the gas station quit carrying them. :(

...Glad the new shows are back. I've been hooked on watching Two Broke Girls on CBS Monday nights. So far, each episode in my opinion has been pretty good. Mike is secretly hooked too! lol

...I am so burnt out on work. Ready for a job change, but for now I will wait patiently until the right one comes along. Have I mentioned I'm not a very patient person when it comes to certain things? :)

...I'm considering on making my blog private. I don't care who reads my blog, but at the same time I don't know anyone in certain states or countries that is constantly logging onto my site. I find it rather creepy! I will probably send out several posts to remind everyone to send me their email addresses before actually going private. Maybe within the next month or so.... I believe some of you would have to get a google or blog account to be able to log onto my site. If it seems like too much trouble then I won't go private. Any thoughts?

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday
Mike and I got Kittys to go for supper and stayed home. We watched The Dilemma starring Kevin James and Vince Vaughn. I thought it was a pretty good and funny movie.

Saturday
I cleaned the house from top to bottom and still didn't get everything done that I would have liked to. Mike's shower and I still fight. Its so hard to clean and once I clean it you can't tell. I told Mike that I secretly hope someone runs into that side of the house so we can redo that shower. lol Not really, but it has crossed my mind. Guess the easy solution is to save money for a new walk-in shower. :) Made some peanut butter cookies and half with Hersey kisses on top for NYE. That evening I grabbed the plate of cookies while Mike packed the cooler and we walked to our NYE party! lol Oh the perks of living in town and it was such a nice evening/weather for it. Spent the evening in Andrea and Aaron's garage playing with the kiddos, eating fried fish and all the goodies to go along with it. And of course we had to get a good game of pitch going. Definitely tell we're getting older when it hits midnight and everyone is leaving for home to sleep.

Sunday
Headed to Mike's parents for Laverne's yummy fried chicken. Came back home and did NOTHING. Love days like this. Later Steve, Ashley and Jake came over so Jake could open his Christmas present. It just now dawned on me that I didn't take a picture.

Monday
Mike and I took down our Christmas lights that were outside. I didn't have anything to put them in so I just rolled each strand up and hung them on the clothes line downstairs. lol Looked a little redneck, but hey it works! Moved my bedroom around. I swear the room looks bigger. I like doing that every now and then. Gives it a fresh look. I finally got around to trying a recipe from Pinterest. It was to add Dr. Pepper to roast. It had no flavoring what so ever, not even a hint of Dr. Pepper. So needless to say, we won't be trying that again! I know it was suppose to make it more moist but it wasn't it was very dry and had no taste.

New Year. New Beginnings.

Looking ahead to what the new year will bring...
We had our cozy little house for a year now. I cannot imagine living anywhere else besides St. Elizabeth.

A much needed girls day and heading to a winery and local pub afterwards.

Lisa's big 21st birthday and party!

The arrival of my cousin's little baby boy, Parker.

Casey's wedding and all the festivities to come along with it.

My grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary followed with family pictures at a local park.

River time.

A co-worker's wedding in Festus, MO.

My bridal showers including one called a grocery shower.

Bachelorette party.

Danielle's wedding and all the festivities to come along with it.

MY WEDDING! It will be hard to get use to writing April Holtmeyer.

Honeymoon. Still debating on a destination...

Another year blessed with two amazing grandparents!

Family will be growing in size... I will officially be able to say I have a sister come September 8th. I could not ask for a better person to be my sister-in-law. She is the sweetest!

Mom and dad have their big 35th wedding anniversary.

I turn the big "27". Where has the last three years gone? I still feel or want to feel 24. Guess I need to take my grandma's words to heart, "If you don't grow old, you die young".

Mike turns 30. Hopefully the wedding doesn't consume too much of my time so I can plan a surprise party for him.

Have a happy and blessed New Year!

{Thank goodness it's Friday} Quote of the Day!

I think I will start doing a random quote on Fridays. It may be something I find encouraging, heartwarming, sincere, motivational, spiritual, completely random or just down right hilarious.

Tongue-tied Thursday

Wednesday Ramblings

This week I thought I would change it up a bit and give you all a break from wedding talk. I'm sure you all mishear songs on the radio all the time thinking they said one thing when really it was something completely different. I do that ALL the time. Here is the main ones I have misheard in the past.

1. I am almost embarrassed to admit this one. Psycho by Puddle of Mudd. For the longest time I thought it was "Meet me on the wall, meet me on the wall..." even though I knew it made NO sense I still had no question of what they said until I was ever so corrected by Danielle. The real lyrics are "Maybe I'm the one. Maybe I'm the one. Who is…"

2. How about Aerosmith's lyrics "Dude Looks Like A Lady"? I always thought and sometimes still do sing it as "Do just like a lady"!

3. Dirt Road by Jason Aldean. I thought it was "Memory relaying up in the headlights". Actual lyric is "Memory lane up in the headlights".

4. Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll... my brother Todd thought when he was little that it was so cool someone would sing about Jeff City. lol To this day, my whole family still sings it as "Built Jeff City, we built Jeff City on rock and roll..." :) Which you have to give Todd credit, it does sound like it.

I know there is more, but I think of them right now.
Do you have a song you misheard?

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday
After work Mike and I headed to his Luebbert family Christmas. Had a great evening and ended up staying until almost 11:30! Never seen his uncle laugh so hard and get so tickled. lol

Saturday
Headed to Mike's mom and dads for their Christmas. Kylie got a bride barbie doll from Mike's mom. She asked if I was going to be just like her. It was sweet and she was so excited I was going to look like her barbie. Oh and we have matching rings! lol I asked her about being a flower girl. She said she is going to wear a blue dress, throw bells instead of flowers and ride a reindeer. lol I think she got it mixed up with a Christmas play she had at school.

Later that afternoon we had the Feeler Christmas. It's hard for all of us to be there every year, but there was still a big majority of us there. Afterwards we had my immediate families Christmas at mom and dads. I got a pretty pink tool set from my brother Todd and Mike got a head phone set so he doesn't have to hear the TV blaring when he's trying to sleep. lol Guess the head phones are more for me since I will be wearing them. They're the ones on the commercials where you listen to the tv while others sleep, etc. Chad got me a nice griddle, makes life so much easier especially when cooking pancakes! :) Ended the evening watching Soul Surfer. It was a really good movie.

Sunday
Mike and I went to church. Fix breakfast consisting of ham and eggs when we got home so I could try out my new griddle. Cleaned around the house some since we hadn't really been home all weekend besides to sleep. It was a disaster. Mike's mom got me Brides Maids for Christmas so we watched that to kill some time. I was very disappointed. I thought it was the girls version of the Hangover and the majority of the show was going to be in Las Vegas. Ha, they didn't even make it there, what a waste of my time! It ended up being an okay movie. That evening we headed to Mike's grandmas for Christmas dinner.

Monday
Fixed a pumpkin pie and headed to my mom and dads for the Elrod Christmas. After dinner some of us played Liverpool Rummy. I love that game and the grandma Dodie in me was coming out. I was getting a little antsy when it was taking some of them forever to discard! lol I may have to blog about the game instruction sometime soon. It's like phase 10 except you don't stay on that number if you don't get it. Everyone moves to the next one each hand and the last hand is very tricky. On the last hand all the cards in your hand has to play when you are ready to lay down and you cannot have any discards. So needless to say you will more than likely go through at least 3 or 4 deck of cards. Fair warning your hands gets very tired very quick!

Came home and I was ready to get rid of my Christmas decorations. I said last week I wasn't ready to take them down anytime soon. Well that quickly changed after having about 6 Christmas'. lol So glad it's all put away in the basement and not ready to come back out until next Christmas.

Christmas Party

Yesterday was my work's Christmas party. Those who wanted to participate played dirty Santa in an ornament exchange which I did NOT think it would ever end. I ended up with an ornament candle which is perfect because I love candles. The ornament above was made by a co-worker, Corrie. She got the idea from Pinterest to take old newspapers to an ornament. What a perfect gift for all of us newspaper bums! :) Got to love Pinterest!

I mainly want to blog for this delicious recipe that Mary made. It was to die for and I can't wait to make it. Definitely a recipe to share. The recipe originally came from my cooking idol, Paula Deen! Sorry Ree. (Like Ree Drummond really reads my blog to see my apology. Just in case she stumbles across it because we're now pals, ya know! Okay, so just because I saw her once at a book signing and couldn't even mumble out the words "Hi" or "So nice to finally meet you" doesn't really make us gal pals, but I like to think so! :) ). Now back to Paula - I love that woman and her southern accent. Wish I could talk and cook like her.
Here's the recipe:


Paula Deen's Corn Salad
Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 10 mins
Servings: 8

About This Recipe
"This was a delightful salad. Tasty and crunchy. Sure to please your guests for a barbeque or anytime!"

Ingredients
2 (15 ounce) cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup green peppers, chopped
1/2 cup red onions, chopped
1 (10 1/2 ounce) bags coarsely crushed Fritos chili cheese corn chips (If you can't find these, you can also mixed 1/2 regular and 1/2 barbeque corn chips)

Directions
Mix first 5 ingredients and chill. Stir in corn chips just before serving.

Tongue-tied Thursday