7 Quick Takes (Vol. 11)

I know...it's not Friday anymore.  The DVR and Netflix leprechauns were a little overzealous this weekend, so I'm just now getting around to posting.  You'll forgive me...right?

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I just realized that this week's "Wedding Wednesday" post never got published.  I picked the date/time and everything, but I guess I hit "save" instead of "publish" so it never went live.  No wonder there were no comment e-mails coming in, lol.  Never fear, the post has been rescheduled for next Wednesday (3/25), so be sure to check it out.

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As I have said many times before, Alex is great.  He knows I feel pretty lonely around here and in an effort to help me feel loved by far-away friends and family, he convinced several people to record their birthday wishes and assembled them into a hilarious video just for me.  In the 8 minute video, I laughed, cried, and beamed with happiness over the kind words sent from all over the country.  I had every intention of sharing the video here this week but Alex has been out of town so we haven't gotten a chance to edit and upload it just yet.  I promise, it will be worth the wait!

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As promised (maybe just a few days late), I'm giving away a Free 1/2 Sheet of Jamberry Nail wraps to one lucky lady who commented on my "Three/Twelve = Giveaway" aka birthday post.  Drum roll please....The winner is.... AMY S. of All for Heavens' Sake!  Congrats, Amy!  Since you live in Canada, I can't sell you Jamberry, but I can hook you up fo-FREE! (I'll e-mail you to discuss the details.) Wahoooo. Thanks to those of you who shared your unique/memorable birthday stories. I had a blast reading them!

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Speaking of Jamberry, it's been a while since I've said much about it here.  Things kinda of died down for me late in the Fall, but I see them picking up again very soon.  And because this is my space, I am going to go ahead and give a shameless plug announcing a really awesome Mother's Day gift set that will be available starting Wednesday (3/25).  The last few gift sets we offered sold out almost immediately, so if you're interested, I'd suggest snagging them up ASAP.  Our typical Buy3/Get1 offer is generally awesome, but with 8 items in this adorable collection, these gift sets are a steal!

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We may be a little late to the party but after seeing lots of positive chatter over Parenthood, Alex and I decided to give it a try.  Our year long "friendship" with One Tree Hill ended around mid-February, so we took a few weeks off from binge TV before we started Parenthood via Netflix.  It took Alex a few episodes to get into the show, but I was pretty much hooked by Episode 2.  Are there any other Parenthood fans out there?

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So how do your #MarchMadness brackets look these days?  I thought this might be my year...but then my alma mater (NC State) decided to pull one out their you-know-what and beat both LSU and Villanova to reach the Sweet 16, and my National Champion (Georgetown) fell to Utah in the second round so this girl is O-U-T of the running for anything interesting.  Maybe next year I should go back to picking winners based on their team colors/mascots...

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Somehow, I found the opportunity to cook a few things from scratch lately - thank goodness because I am sick(!) of salads.  I had some left over sour cream from chili I made when my family was in town a few weeks ago, so I put it to good use by trying out Patty's sour cream enchilada recipe.  You'd think we were Hispanic for the frequency we consume tortillas and chips.  Anyway, the enchiladas were a great alternative to a traditional version.  In my post about shopping the perimeter, I also mentioned throwing together some banana bread with overripe bananas.  I really need to buy some baking soda, because that bread wasn't exactly the best texture and I could really be baking a lot more fun stuff if I had some of that to throw in the mix.  And since Alex was out of town this week, I finally got around to making a batch of red beans and sausage for the freezer.  Thanks to Jen's suggestion, I threw in some onions and bell pepper this time around...definitely added to the deliciousness.  But, I used too much water so it was more like a soup/gumbo/gravy...the taste was just as great as ever, though!

Okay, enough rambling...for more Takes, be sure to visit This Ain't the Lyceum.

Have a great week!
-Lauren