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.

--- 2 ---

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!

--- 5 ---

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

In the Works

It's been kind of quiet around here for the last week, and while I know all of you are worried about my absence (NOT), I assure you everything is fine on this end.  I will say that I worked an overnight camp all last weekend, and for obvious reasons, it has taken me a while to recuperate from that.  The all-nighter with a sick camper sure didn't help that exhaustion either...but I digress.

In the throws of baseball season, Alex has been away quite a bit lately.  The opportunity to veg on girly TV has been nice, but I do miss having a husband, and the life of a sports widow can be lonely (especially overnight).  So, when Alex is in town, I'm at the ball park volunteering (RE:  #10 on 20 in 14) or we're scrambling to keep the house/bills/taxes/etc in order.

In the little time that's left, I have been working on some fun personal projects.  One of those has been becoming an independent consultant for Jamberry Nails.  Ever heard of Jamberry?  I hadn't either until a friend invited me to her Facebook party back in February.  I never paint my nails because they chip instantly it seems, and while the gel polish looks great, it is so damaging.  The fix for these issues?  Jamberry!

Jamberry nails are actually nail wraps (think decals) that stick on your natural nail and last for 2-3 weeks (or 4-6 on toes!) without the damaging effects of gels.  Hallelujah! They also happen to have tons of super cute design options, and the cost is totally reasonable, too.  Hesitant to put money into something I hadn't actually seen on person (remember, Facebook party), I didn't end up buying anything that week.  However, the consultant who hosted the party offered to send me a couple of samples to try at home.  Instantly, I was hooked!

And here we are, just a few weeks later...I'm officially a consultant!  So anyway, I would love for you to head over to Facebook and "Like" my consultant page to find out more about Jamberry.  I plan to host online parties (and in person ones, when feasible) and hope some of you will fall in love with the product just like I did.  You can also e-mail me anytime with questions, and I'll be glad to answer them for you!

But that's not all folks...

As I mentioned before, I am in the process of renaming this blog and freshening things up around here with a brand new design and layout.  I've also slowly been working to add tags to my posts, and hope to get things a little more organized.  In fact, I'll share a sneak peak with you today!

Drum roll......

There it is, a sneak peak at what will hopefully be fun and exciting things to come!  With all that said, please be patient with me around here.  I am not giving up on the blog, but I may be posting a little less frequently than I have lately.  My hope is that goal #1 on 20 in 14 will keep me accountable for posting at least once a week (and maybe even more!).

Thanks for all the support and please stay in touch!
-Lauren

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 5)

Not a ton of motivation for any type of significant post, and it happens to be Friday, so here we go!

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Wednesday, I was all set to throw together a short post about my Ash Wednesday musings, but then I left Mass and spent the evening at baseball, and by the time I got home at 10 p.m., that obviously wasn't happening.  The abridged version goes a little something like this:  Growing up, we were always off of school/work on Ash Wednesday and during Holy Week.  These days it feels a bit sacrilegious to treat them as regular days.  But then again, it seemed a bit easier to spend the day fasting with work distractions instead of sitting at home eyeing the pantry and dwelling upon my commitment not to opening it.  Then...I got to Mass and the priest went on about how there are so many "holidays" on our standard calendars (days celebrating history, important people, etc), yet some of the holiest (and thus most important) days are left off of the calendar.  Welp, there went my previous sentiments...right out the window.  So yeah...tell me again why we have to keep regular schedules on Ash Wednesday and during Holy Week?

--- 2 ---

I'm still fighting that crud I mentioned before.  Poor Alex has been suffering with me and my coughing spasms all night for almost two weeks now.  Yesterday, he made me promise I'd "take care of it" by the time he returned from this weekend trip to Birmingham.  So, with a different doctor appointment scheduled for the afternoon, I decided to take a whole "sick" day, and see a doctor about the cold too.  $15 bucks and 30 minutes later, I was sent home with instructions to buy a bottle of Delsym and call back on Monday if I wanted something stronger.  Gee, thanks.

--- 3 ---

So yeah, doctors.  I've had four appointments in the last three weeks, which means I am taking good notes for my eventual post regarding item #18 on "20 in 14."  There are some other items from the list (1, 6, 10...) that are also in progress so hopefully I'll be able to update on something before too long.

--- 4 ---

This is totally random and I don't think there are any boys reading this, so I am just going to go ahead and say it.  Did you know that a woman's body temperature rises for about a week or so before her her period, and then...wait for it...drops significantly the day before or day it starts?  I've been charting for 18 months now and for some reason I only recently realized this super nifty little indicator.  For a girl who has spent 15 years (wow, old much?!) having not the slightest clue when she would begin menstruating (could be 28 days, could be 80 - ya never know!), this is a BIG development in my life.  Thanks, NFP!  (And if you aren't charting for whatever reason, I highly encourage it...even if you are totally single and not at all thinking about babies.  Just knowing when to expect this "visitor" is enough to ring the bells in my book!)

--- 5 ---

I had full intentions of being completely productive from home today, but of course that didn't happen.  Instead of designing a March newsletter for work (because, hello...we're already a week into the month), I ended up spending the day fighting my phone and it's recently diagnosed seizure disorder (go with it, laugh!).  Those two doctor visits took up a chunk of time, and then I tried to knock out that whole expiring driver's license thing but failed miserably because WHO CARRIES CASH THESE DAYS??  Seriously, people, we are in the year 2014!  And now, it's nearly 5 p.m. and I'm sort of having this mini anxiety attack (blogging helps, yes?) about how today is the deadline to register for this national conference I need to attend, or else the price is going to jump by at least $100 bucks...sheesh.  (So hey, Dawn...text me...e-mail me...something! Are we going, or what??)

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Anybody ever heard of Jamberry nails?  An acquaintance invited me to her Facebook party a few weeks ago and I was instantly intrigued, but didn't want to dish out the dough for something I'd never actually seen in person.  Her awesome consultant sent me some samples and I think I might be hooked.  I'm thinking about joining as a consultant ("pyramid scheme," as some affectionately call it) and then trying to convince all of you how Jamberry is awesome and you should buy them too.  Sounds fun, right?

--- 7 ---

And that brings me to the last item on this list...this here blog.  For several months I have been thinking about wanting to make some big changes around here, starting with the name.  I'll try to save more rambling for another day, but the jist of it is that I want to keep learning and growing as a blogger, and I feel like a name change is one step in that process.  As of bedtime last night, I finally have a couple of names that are actually feasible (because that was the biggest hurdle so far).  I'd like others' input though.  SO, how should I do this?  Put a poll on my page?  Send out e-mails?  Call up a couple of my IRL friends?  Part of me wants to keep the names a secret until I'm ready for the reveal, but it's in my nature to need confirmation from others...so what's a girl to do?

Alright, that's it!  Sorry to be so wordy (and pictureless), but I had a lot to say and nothing to say all at the same time.  Funny how that works.

Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Lauren

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!