Say a prayer I don't trip...

Well....my college roommate and one of my best friends is tying the knot in approximately 42 hours.

I remember the first time I actually spoke to her. I walked into the community bathroom of the 4th floor of Lever and said hey. She looked up from washing her face, gave me a "don't talk to me, I don't know you" look and continued rinsing. Not even a "hey" back. At that moment, I remember thinking, "well, guess we won't be friends." Ha! About a month later, a girl on our hall invited WF to dinner with us (she was all alone and we were the only ones on the hall....I guess I have somewhat of a heart), and she about had a fit over the Disney themed Kleenex boxes at Walmart afterwards. I changed my mind about her a little that night.

Since then, we've been through it. Hours of conversations, barging in rooms, crying, laughing, not speaking, coffee-drinking, Lifetime watching, borrowing clothes, stealing back clothes, traveling to Gatlinburg, Orlando, New York, Charleston, and sharing the deep, dark stuff that only real friends can tell each other.

Yes, that happened. Call me Jack. She shall be Goofy.

It's surreal. I mean, I'm so incredibly excited for her and Mr. D but I really didn't ever think the day would come. This week I've been thinking a lot about the countless weekends I packed up my things and headed down to St. Matt's for a mini-vacation from real life in Greenville. Her house was my escape and always the perfect place for me to be when I needed to align my thoughts.

Now, her house will be his house. She'll be living with a boy. And it won't be the same, but in such a good way. She's waited soooo long for this day (the girl's literally been planning her wedding since she was seven), and from talking to her last night, I can see that she is giddy with excitement.

So, I wish them both the best in this new life. We're growing up, and it's scary, and it hits me more and more everyday realizing that we're starting to take the next steps in life, but that's almost the best part. Leaping into the unknown full of hope. Knowing it won't be easy, and we'll have a lot to trudge through at certain parts, but also knowing that there's somebody else there to hold on to. Congratulations, y'all. May you have the best wedding and the greatest life there is to offer....and also adopt 18 Chinese babies, because that's WF's next dream. :)

Love you guys to pieces.

Aren't they just precious...

This is exactly why I love Saturdays...

Today has been all kinds of awesome.

Wanna know why? Yes, you do.

JM and I went to purchase WF's wedding gift at Belk's today. Well, of course, I beat her there, because (and I totally say this with all the love in my heart) that girl can't be on time for anything. Ever. And it's okay, she accepts it, and I know now to just delay my leaving by 5-10 minutes if I want to get anywhere with her at the same time. Okay, that's all besides the point. SO, I walk into Belk's and laaaaaaaaahhhh (this is what angels' singing sounds like in case you don't get it because why would you? I'm pretty sure angels' singing is an onomatopoeia) there is the shoe section. They do this on purpose you know. I'd love to know how much extra money they make each year by putting the blasted shoes at the front. Smart marketing there, girls.

Okay, so ANYWAYS (sorry, ADD tonight), I can't turn down a good shoe sale, especially when there are red signs flying all around saying 50% off and an additional 50% off of that! Quick lesson - that's not 100% off. It's half off, then half of that. As in $100 pair would be $50 then it would be $25. It amazes me that people don't know that....psh. My momma taught me shoe sale mathematics when I was two. Months old, that is.

So I saunter over to the big-time sale section and do a quick assessment of the scene. All grouped by sizes, my favorite. I head to the 8-8.5 section (do not make fun of my large-ish feet) and start opening boxes. I don't go into these sales expecting anything, because you never know what you're gonna get, but I do have pretty good confidence in myself when it comes to finding a great pair on an even greater price.

Annnnd what do you know. I found them. The brown boots I've been looking for without knowing I was looking for them ALL WINTER LONG. Cha-ching! I check the price, which already has the first half-off price listed on the box. $44.50....eh. Not horrible, not good. Then, oh wait, I get another 50% off! That means these boots are $22.25.

Mmm hmm. That just happened.

By that time, JM was there, so I tried them on, she liked. I bought.

Boom.

And THAT is how you spend 7.5 minutes finding the perfect pair of shoes for a not-expensive price.

Oh hot dang.

P.S.

The girls and I celebrated Miss MR's 25th tonight. It was fabulous. Pizza, upside-down pineapple cake, crunchy (yes I forgot about them in the oven) cupcakes and girl talk. Perfection!

Yup. I made it. And JM ate all the cherries off of it.

P.P.S.

You wish you had one of these...

I always like to end on a happy note :)

This is where the rubber meets the road...and by road I mean my abdomen.

So, it is now 12 days until WF's wedding. Well, really 11 because it's after 10 pm. So we'll say 11, for this post's sake.

I'm not one to obsess over my weight. I ain't skinny, don't get me wrong, but I work out and eat right on a regular basis. Hm...okay I work out like 2-3 times a week and maybe need something sweet after lunch and dinner, BUT it's only like a little handful of chocolate chips, so get off me.

With that said, I got my bridesmaid's dress from the alterations shop (aka Kathleen, she is awesome and I love her and her off-the-wall stories) today and tried it on. Fits like a glove. (round of applause goes here). But, then I realized that I have arm fat. And if I pooch out my belly, I could totally freak people out by making them think that I'm in my second trimester.

SO!

I started "dieting" today. My dieting definition does not really equal most people's no-carb-or-die version, because let's be honest, I won't live forever and I sure ain't spending precious time not eating my chocolate chips. It more mimics a calorie-counting, healthy-living kind of way.

Where is this post going? I don't really know, I'm ranting, but my main point is that I'm gonna let y'all know what I eat for the next 11 days. Not, like, everyday because that's totally boring and I'm not creative enough to make it interesting with awesome recipes and such. But I figure it'll make me accountable in some strange fashion and that by this I can drop about 2-3 lbs. by the wedding date, which is a lot on me, and not completely irrational.

Here goes today:

Breakfast: Oats bar and coffee
Snack: Banana and raw almonds
Lunch: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers meal and graham cracker with marshmallow cream
Supper: Egg whites with spinach and cheese on Flat-Outs flax bread, whole wheat saltine crackers, handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips

So how'd I do???

I say okay!!

Let me know your thoughts :)

Snoooowwww Dayyyy!!!!

It's been called "the storm of the decade" here in good ol' South Carolina.

Everybody keeps guestimating at the number of inches of snow we've received down here in the dirty South, but one thing's for sure, it's the most I've EVER seen in Greenville. As a kid being interviewed on the news yesterday afternoon said, "I went out thar when I woke up this mornin' and I liked tah froze my butt owff." That, friends, is exactly how snow is treated here below the Mason-Dixon. Our rear ends just aren't acclimated to temperatures below 40.

"Excuse me, Mom, I'd appreciate some privacy while I relieve myself."

I got woken up at about 6:10 yesterday morning by LH doing her mommy duties and telling me I should call work and tell them I'm not coming in because I can't drive on the roads. Why that was necessary at 6 am, I'll never know. Needless to say, I called work at 7 and was told we were closed for the day. Schwwwwiiiinnnngggg!!!!!! I then proceeded to talk to my mom for about 45 minutes (at the crack of dawn), and by that time, going back to sleep was totally out of the picture. I had laundry washed and folded, yoga done, lunch made, shower taken and house cleaned by about 12:30. I felt like a hero.

The boy came and rescued me about 1:30 so I would have some company, which was a good thing, because after lunch I started getting a little panicky thinking that I was going to be stranded all alone for weeks and end up writing eerie poetry about solitude and invisible friends that played in the snow with me.

Hey Caralee, you want us to come get you?

Eh, sure. Me and Valerie were about to change into our ski bibs and build a snowman.

Ummm who?

No one. Nevermind. I probably need keep some actual real-person company for a while. Come save me, please?

Yeah. Okay. We only have room for one other person in the car though, so no made-up friends allowed. 

Fine. Rude.

I'm even making him crazy.

Last night consisted of snuggling by the fire, having snowball fights, watching The Bachelor (omg the girl with vampire fangs, weeeiiirddd!!) and eating. Because for some reason the snow makes me snacky. Probably not the best thing for my "lose 5 pounds before WF's wedding" plan. It's a good thing I did that yoga yesterday.

Our first snowman! I told him it was a milestone...also, don't make fun of the snowman.
We live in SC, we don't practice snowman building often.

AC always looks pretty. Me on the other hand?
Why did anyone allow me to make that face?

I like this picture. 'Twas a great day. :)

Wow this is my 100th post!! And now onto other breaking news...

100 blog entries. Should I get a prize for this? I kind of think so.

As of today at 4:00 pm, I will be on my happy little way to Asheville, NC to celebrate the last days of Miss WF being a single lady (cue Beyonce tune...). While I am beyond excited about this, I'm also stressed to the max.

I planned this little trip from start to finish (with, of course, some help from JM and LH), and I have this idea in my mind that if it doesn't go perfectly, everyone will hate me. Hard. And I may not be able to climb out from the dark pit of failure. Yes, I know that no one will put me on the guillotine if we're 15 minutes late for our dinner reservations...but I can't be totally sure.

I'm driving myself insane. Everything will be fine. They don't even make guillotines anymore.

With all that said, I looked at the weather report a few minutes ago and it is supposed to snow all weekend. Snow. Allllll. Weekend. Which means it will snow at our cabin, that's on top of a mountain, that's hard to get to without 4-wheel-drive on a normal day, much less on a snowy day.

I'm sorry, but did someone not realize that every single one of the 14 ladies going on this trip is from South Carolina?? Do any of us know how to drive in the snow? Absolutely not. Southern girls aren't made for roughin' it in bad winter weather. We glisten (NOT sweat) even during the triple-digit summers, which obviously means we're not used to temperatures colder than 54 degrees, so I don't suppose anyone can answer why on earth snow would decide to come down the weekend we're SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE FREAKING MOUNTAINS.

Whew. Now that I've super vented, I will say that I truly am excited about the weekend (if we make it up the mountain withou tumbling down) because I've planned some fun surprises, which may or may not involve embarrassing the lady of the weekend to pieces. WF won't stop blushing until Tuesday, guaranteed ;)
To all my ladies on the guest list, can't wait to see your gorgeous faces!!

She's super pumped, too. Those are her party eyes.

Gifts.

Okay, just to start off. I realize that Christmas is not about the gifts. Or the money spent. Or about who got what. I get it. This post is really just to chat a little about boys and their gift-giving habits. So, yeah. There's that. And don't get offended when I show off my goods. I am humble...most of the time. I just like to give credit where credit is due.

Now, we (girls, which I'm assuming is pretty much all who reads this blog) all know that the opposite sex has a tendency to, how shall we say, totally blow it in the gift-giving department. It's not their fault. Their worlds revolve around patting bums (weird? so weird.), bad calls and who is currently winning Fantasy whatever-the-current-sport. The good ones do reserve a small portion of the brain to concentrate on how to make their lady happy. YOU boys, we appreciate you, for the record. Anyways, even though they acknowledge the fact that us girls like to be pampered and swooned over and given zomg great gifts, they are clue.less. as to what it is in the female universe that could possibly make us happy.

To me? Not so hard. I like massages and table settings and designer shoes and having my nails done and wearing cute dresses. This? Is Greek so the male population. So, they resort to gift cards and kitchen equipment. Which is all well and good and the (not spoiled) girls usually appreciate these gifts because we know they kind of tried.

But it's always a refreshing surprise and a BIG win for the guys when they get the perfect gift. Ohhhhh, the all-ellusive perfect gift. WTF IS ITTTTTTT?!?!?

Well, boys, there's no easy answer. We all have a different definition of the perfect gift. And really, it pretty much changes every two weeks or so, so you are up the creek. Sorry. Really. But hey, God didn't make things easy for anyone, so accept your fate.

You ready for the great part?

My boy got me the greatest gifts ever for Christmas.

Ahhh!!! Oohhh!!!! Grrr!!! I hear you, no worries. Yes, be jealous. He did. Granted, I steered him in the right direction. Okay, I pretty much Google mapped it for him, but he came through with flying colors.

I'm so proud.

See here's the thing, guys. We don't expect you to know our perfect gift. We expect you to listen to our not-so-subtle hints about our perfect gift. Yes, this is scary. Yes, it requires putting down the Playstation controller. Yes, it requires researching what the heck the color "camel" is. But hey, the perfect gift reaps great rewards for the both of you.

So don't say I didn't give you anything. You just got the best advice anyone will ever give. Merry late Christmas. And Happy New Perfect Gift Year!

Hobo Wallet!

Buckle Jeans!

Camera! Like my self-portrait? 

It's hard to take a picture of the camera with which you're taking pictures.