What a week...

Ugghhh.. I am Miserable *yes, that's with a capital M*
I just can't seem to kick this sinus situation that keeps trying to take me down over the past month or so. I've been doing a pretty good job of kicking it's rear end.. until this week. Stayed home from work Monday (which kills me seeing as how I have 1 vaca day for the rest of the year now), went to the doc and the box. So I am now on three different drugs.. fun! I do good until about 3:00.. then I'm completely done for. I can't breathe!!!!
Okay Okay.. enough whining for now. I'm really not a good sick person. I complain. Alot. I'm sure it gets very old for hub, but he does a very good job of taking care of me :) Gotta give him credit.
So, Halloween is in two nights and I have to say I'm pretty dern excited. No special plans. And thank God I didn't make any!! I would've had to cancel. I refused this year to do the whole dress-up, party thing. Hub and I have all 4 Saw movies to watch, I'm making chili, have a fresh loaf of French bread, and plenty of candy to hand out to the kiddies. I cannot wait. The only thing that could make it better is if we could have a fire. Gotta get that sucker cleaned out. It's on our to do list!
We hopefully will be going to the Carolina/Tennessee game Saturday. ONly if I can breathe correctly and am not still coughing up my organs. Oh yeah.. and if dad comes through with the tickets :)
I'll leave you with that. I have to go and finish hacking now.

Wait wait wait..
One more very important thing on my mind:
Remember last weeks post about my brother? You know, it was his 19th birthday, I talked a lot about him making choices about going to school, what are you going to do with your life... blah blah blah.
welllll.. He has an appointment tomorrow morning at our local Air Force base to sign on up. I think he has to take a test first but still.. huge step. He's been talking about this for a couple months now, but I can't believe he's actually going through with it. I'm very supportive of it, proud of him, yet scared at the same time. Will keep everyone updated!

Candle Pics

Warning:

These won't be the best picture quality wise (although I did try really hard), but you'll get the point Cranberry Apple Marmelade.

Clean Cotton, votive

Pumpkin Souffle (seems to be a favorite)

Maybe I'll do a little giveaway soon :)

Candles Candles Candles!!`

Just got off the phone with mum and have some very exciting news. A couple of posts back, I talked about my mother getting back into making candles and our idea to try and sell them. I handed out a few samples at work and tried to spread the word as best possible. A few people from the office liked the samples and put in an order.. which I was very thankful for. And I know it made mum feel good :)
So here's the potentially GREAT news... Ready?
While at her hair appointment this morning, her hairdresser let her know that she'd like her to bring some candles into the salon for her to sell! (!!??!!!!!!!) I'm bursting with excitment. That's huge. A big turning point hopefully.
I can see a couple of potential panic attacks arising in mum, but don't worry.. I'll be there to remind you to chill.. and that this could be fun. I'll sacrifice my social life if I have to ;)
If I have to drive allll the way out to Bwood after work a couple nights a week and on the weekend I will (What a terrible terrible idea it was to move out to L). And again.. this is the hopeless optimist coming out in me.. but I just don't see how they wouldn't be a hit.
*post to follow with some (maybe not so high quality at the moment) pics of the infamous candles*

On a seperate, much much more awful note, she also shared with me in this same conversation that my dad's boss had a fall today and is in the hospital with bleeding in the brain. His name is Marty Hastings and his family really really needs all the prayers they can get. Marty was diagnosed with brain cancer a while ago (not sure on the exact time.. sorry) and things have been progressively getting worse. He is in a wheel chair now. I'm not sure how he fell this morning or where he was (whether at home or at work).
I know this is hard for my parents as my dad is very close with him and they have worked together for a long time. I hate hearing the hurt in their voices and that alone brings me to tears, but I just can't image how their family is even coping. I'm pretty sure he has at least one son that is still in highschool (mum, please correct me if I'm a little off) and a wife that plays in mum's Bunko group. It's just awful.

Also, I am debating on switching my blog to private for many many reasons, but am so hesitant to do so. Any thoughts? For those of you who are set to private, isn't it hard to connect with more people?

Happy Birthday

Tomorrow is my "little" brother's 19th birthday!! Happy birthday Charlie!

That's us at his high school graduation this past June. Hence, the reason I put little in the quotes. He's a tad bit bigger than I.

Let's get sappy for a sec, shall we? Charlie, love you more than I could ever express. I'm so thankful to have him and my other brother in my life. I know he is so unsure of where he should go with his life right now, but the one thing I would tell him is to just live it up. Don't rush so fast into complete responsibility. It's not always so much fun. I wish he'd realize that this is just about.. no really is.. the last stage in his life that he can just let go and have fun and not worry about bills and other such responsibilities. Don't get me wrong, it's not all so bad, but I'd just like to see him live a real college life and put himself it a good position for the future. Whichever route he chooses.

Anyways.. in the meantime. I'd really like for you to make up your mind about where we're going for your birthday dinner tomorrow night. Please make a good decision.

Thanks!

Awards!

Over the weekend I received a couple of rewards. A big up to Mojito Maven for the first two!

The Bookworm award *is what I think we're calling it* was the first:

Rules are:
1. Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences...The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!!

My Book is ~ The Bible
When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
"Then our father said, 'Go back and buy a little more food.' But we said, 'We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'

She also gave me the Kreativ Blogger award. I've gotten this one already, so I won't post up the pic, but the list I'm supposed to make is different, so here we are...

6 things I value:


The strength of my family.
My faith.
Honesty.. I want it brutal.
TimeMy husband. *I originally counted him in the first bulletin, but think his support and conpanionship deserved a special shot out*
A scense of humor.
I think it's a necessity to get through life.
Kindness

6 things I don't value:

Money.. yes it's necessary, but I tend to value other things above it.
Close-mindedness
Ignorance
Insects
People who don't think of others.
I'll stick with negativity as well.. I hate it!
(That was actually pretty hard to come up with that list!)



I tag:
Just Ask Beth
... and now I'm a grown-up
Tidbits of Drama
Tales of a Northern Bell
High on Hairspray

I have one more "tag" to follow up on.. I'll get there.. promise!

Annnd I'm back

I have to admit: It felt like I haven't been on here in so long that I was kind of intimidated to even log in. I was afraid of the massive amounts of posts to catch up on and got pretty lazy and didn't feel like going through my weekend. But alas.. here I am. Typing away. Enjoying myself.

I had a GREAT weekend. The wedding was absolutely perfect and we had a blast. I can't say enough about Bride. Beautiful, classy, calm, happy, fun.. she lived it up and I was so so so happy for her. Like I mentioned before, we've been friends since 9th grade and it was great to see her so happy. I could not have hoped for anything.. or anyone.. better for her.
Saturday night was the actual ceremony. Reception was a little too fun. White Zin + songs like the cha cha slide all night = a bad next day for me.

I took a few pictures on my camera (although not many.. my camera was MIA between Friday night and Sunday afternoon) but I do have a couple of other pics other people tagged on FB to share.

Here I am in all my glory:

I cut the other girls out for privacy reasons.. sorry!
And here's one of the lovely bride and groom:

I have a decent one of hub and I too, but until I find the cord to connect my camera to the computer.. this will have to do!

Today was an amazing relaxing day off from work with my husband and unfortunately it's back to reality tomorrow. Oh well.. 4 more days until the weekend :)

And thank you so much for the two blogs I was tagged to over the weekend.. I promise I'll respond. I'm just not ready for that yet!

What? My grandfather is still alive?

According to my father he is!
After dropping hub off for his class last night, I trecked on over to my parents house since it is closer to Trey's school than our house is. After a glass of wine with mum, a long walk with Cayce and my youngest brother, and yummy dinner with the fam, we sit down in the living room.
While we were watching that Old Christine show, Cayce (our dog by they way, we think she's part lab and hound) wouldn't stop fussing. Dad couldn't hear the show *God forbid* so he sends Cayce over to her bed. After staring him down for about a minute, she instead comes to me for protection. But she lost that battle and within another minute she was on her bed, again staring my father down. That's when he blurts it out...
"I swear she's my father reincarnated"
We look at him and laugh. He's serious though. And he says it like it's the most logical thing to say in the world. It's the way she looks at him he says.
So.. low and behold.. we've been living with my grandfather for what.. 7 years? Feeding her/him dry dog food, giblets on Thanksgiving, and treats every night at 9 on the dot. She/He does get an occasional Cheez-It as well. And maybe a couple other treaties while I am there.. I'm just saying.

Please keep my family in your prayers as the Red Sox will most likely lose tonight and be out of the runnings. They will be in severe mourning.
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Update:
The sox pulled it out... can't believe it! Now I don't have to deal with a depressed Yetton family over the weekend.

A Pat on the Back...

For me!!

In case you noticed.. I did not post my weight loss results Monday. You may have thought to yourself that I was slacking off, but no no, you would be wrong. I have made the decision to switch my official weigh-in day to Wednesday to follow along with the rest of the Weight Watcher Wednesday bloggers. So this morning I jump up on that scale. Result for the week was 1.4 lb loss (yay). Off I go to my chart to add up my total and low and behold, I notice that I started this roller coaster of dieting (kind of) exactly a month ago.
So here it is. My first month total number of pounds lost is... drumroll please... 4.8 lbs. Yes, I wish it could have been at least .2 more lbs to make it an even 5 and yes, I could have tried much much harder.. but I have to admit. I'm pretty dern proud of myself.
Confession Time:
Up to this point, I've only worked out on average.. ehhh.. I would say once a week. I know.. shame on me. I'll try to do better, I promise! I've done it twice this week already and have full intentions of getting up in the morning to do so again. * I do have a wedding to look good for this weekend ya know* Woke up Tues am to do The Firm workout.. yuck.. it kicked my rear. And just got done walking Cayce. My family's dog that lives at my parents house. it was great for me and she loved it!
Good luck to me for getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning!!

Auntie's Candles

I am so proud of my mama! She's doing something she loves to do and with a little help from no other than muah... she may just be able to make some money doing it. I believe in her with every fiber of my being, even if she doesn't.

Mum has started up making candles again and she so so much enjoys it. And yall.. she's good at it too. Slammin really. She has all kinds of scents and sizes. And prices to beat Yankee candle. Some of her yummiest scents being... *Fresh Cotton, Lilac, Apples & Berries, Apple Jack & Peel, Pumpkin Souffle, Cranberry Apple Marmalade...* They smell simply delish! Has soy and regular paraffin wax as well.

I would love to help her actually make a profit doing this, so I am trying my best to spread the word. I figure this will help. I'm also bringing samples to give away at work tomorrow *hope boss lady doesn't mind* along with different jar sizes she'll make to show prices. We'll see how it goes from there.

I figure it's worth a shot. If noone likes them enough to buy, she'll still do them and force them on people for presents. If nothing else, she'll still have me sniping them off of her whenever I come over. She'll be happy making them and will always have me as a loyal customer :)
But really I hope they'll sell!

What do yall think? Are there already too many outlets out there for candles or do you think it's worth a shot? I will be posting pictures later (forgot my camera batteries at her house) and will be willing to send out samples. Let me know!

Confession Time

I wonder why I constantly feel the need to confess potentially embarrasing details about myself on this thing? I'm thinking it could possibly be bc of my early childhood Catholic days. Maybe part of my subconscience still feels like I should be confessing to a Priest and this is as close as it gets. Whatever the reason... here goes ~

I still like Brittney Spears and I'm glad she has a new album coming out.

There... I said it.

I've been rooting for her all along and am glad she is back. I think she did a great job of presenting herself on that last award show. I think it was the MTV awards? She won three and held herself very well. Now she has a new video out and a new album coming out in December. (I taped 20/20 from Friday night and learned all this new information) I love the video, I have to admit.

And I say, good for her!! We all have our deep dark secrets and scary points in life right? What if ours were out there for the world to see. I'm pretty sure I would have gone off the deep end as well!

That's all I have to say about that. I'll run off and say my three Hail Mary's and do the Rosary a couple hundred times now.

Wanna be my friend?

There is this family that lives down the street from us. But not on our street.. they are outside of our "neighborhood" on the main street. I've been noticing them since our realtor drove us to look at our house and have been dying to be their friends ever since. In fact, they are so important to me, that when I saw their house, I thought to myself that this was an omen telling us we need to move in.

They have had a Patriots flag flying proudly from their house since February. They fly it all year long!! I love that. I need some support. New England fans are hard to come by around here. (They have also had a little Redsox flag by their mailbox... and a Carolina flag) We're a match made in heaven.

So for the past couple of months, I'll admit it, I've been somewhat stalking them. I drive slowly by their house. We take walks by their house while I'm secretly hoping they'll be outside.. so I can what?? Attack? I haven't thought out exactly what I'll say.

"Hi, I've been planning this get together for the past couple of months, do you want to be my friend?"

Maybe I'll just throw out a big hefty Go Pats and see where we go from there.

Broken Heart

Hello, my name is Jessica. And I have had my heart broken tonight by fictional characters. Why, out of all the people I know that have read Twilight series, has noone told me how heart renching the first couple chapters of the 2nd book are. I have been sitting here (paying no attention to the Clemson game mind you.. so we know this is serious) crying my eyes out over the lost love between a highschool girl and a vampire.

Don't judge me.

I just now looked up to the TV and realized it was the end of the 3rd quarter in the game and the score is 3-0 Wake. I've been in my own little world and not wishing a horrilbe horrilbe loss upon those Tigers.

And just like that.. he loses some points

Should have known! After gushing on hub like that he goes down in another hole. Just like that.

I'm laying in bed the other night. He's walking around brushing his teeth. Getting ready for bed. I might even be feeling a little sexy.. I'm just saying. Then he looks at me and through his toothpaste filled mouth, he says, while pointing at the back of my thighs in a rotating motion, "What's goin on with all that back there?"

What???!!!????

I fly to the mirror. Closely examine my thigh. What do I see? A bunch of tiny, dark blue veins running around all over the place "back there".
I spazzed. Call mum at 10:00 that night to find out what's really going on. She says those are vericous veins. Well what do I do about this? She says.. ready for this? "Get used to it, it runs in our family." Not acceptable says I. I will be doing research very shortly about what all this means. But in the meantime I've seen 100000 vein specialist commercials. I guess there's some kind of hope out there. Aren't I too young for all this????

It's been killing me to not post as long as I've been away! I know it's only been 2 days maybe, but i've missed it. We've been so busy. Let's see.. what to catch up on?

Hub started school again this week (to get his Masters)! He has class Wednesday nights from 6-9:30. Better him than me! Although I have thought about going back. The thought makes me a little neauseated (sp) at the moment though.

I LOVED The Biggest Loser this week. Jillian was on point wasn't she?? Fierce! I like it! She better bust those girls into shape. Wish she could come into my living room and bust me into shape! Am even more excited for next week for the splitting up of families, sad but will be interesting.

I did watch part of the debate, but only lasted about 1/2 hour. I have a confession to make. I really can't stand watching those! I know I need to be involved but I already know who I'm voting for. I'm not on the fence. Do I really have to subject myself to those??? Constant bickering and neither one of them really answering the questions that are being asked of them? Please say no.

Tonight we'll be watching the Clemson game.. Go Wake Forest!!! I'll have to tape The Office and ER.

I am almost done with the first book in the Twilight series and I am so pumped about it. It's not what I thought it was going to be and not my typical read. I suggest them to anyone. I'm so so into it. I'm going to finish the last chapter tonight and hopefully start the second book! If anyone is into it.. High on Hairspray informed me that the movie will be coming out soon! Anyone interested in going??

We don't have big plans for the weekend (Thank God). I think we'll be getting together with some friends for the Carolina game. Maybe my parents house on Sunday.. .and that's about it! Anyone have big plans??

I guess that's about it. Feels good to be contributing again!

Reason number 2838663 I love my husband

Anyone that knows me best knows that I am a Freak - with a capital F - about food and their expiration dates. I cannot bring myself to eat/drink it if it even gets close to the exp. date (like a day or two). Irrational.. I know. But that's me.. can't do anything about it.

Growing up, I've always been terrified that I'm going to drink bad milk. It starts like 5 days before the exp. date. I've always tried to make my mum smell it and tell me if it was bad, only for her to reject me. "Get that out of my face" she'd say and away I'd sulk and go without milk bc I wouldn't take that chance.

Tonight I go to take my meds and think that a nice glass of chocolate milk will take away my chance of nausea. It expires on the 10th.. I pour a glass, bring it to hub, and ask if he thinks it's bad. His reaction????


Not only does he smell it.... he takes a big gulp as well!!! It was still good :)

Now that's love!!! He knows how irrational I am and supports me anyway!

Grrrrrrr

I need more friends in the technology field. Any takers????

My Internet is very very unreliable! I have too many blogs to read everyday for it to keep going out on me like this. It lasts for a minute and then goes out on me. I know it's not our router. I know it's not our outside connection. Could it be that we need a new modem possibly?? Our IP is going to charge us $75 to just come out here and look at our inside connection (nevermind whatever they charge to actually fix it) and I'd rather not go through that if I don't have to. Between hub's car breaking down.. oh I'd say 50 million times this month and my unexpected trip to the doctor this morning (will get into later... one thought process at a time) we don't have $75 to throw away. Especially if they come in and tell us nothing is wrong ~ and still get our mula!! Any suggestions??? I'm desperate.

Back to the doctors office.
I can pretty much count on getting a sinus infection about twice a year. Lovely. I've been dealing with the post nasal drip and semi sore throat for the past couple weeks, but yesterday a sharp pain in my ear just about knocked my socks off. Who gets ear infections at 25 years old??? Of course.. that would be me! Went to doctors care.. definitely have a ear infection and early sinus infection.. got an antibiotic. All for $95. Whhhaaat???? I thought being on a state health plan was a great deal? Ohh no.. I don't know where that hype came from, but some body's been lying to me! Co-pays don't exist with them apparently. You pay full price until you meet your deductible. Which is $700 for the two of us. Crazy... we can't win this month I swear!

On a brighter note ~
I did lose the lbs this week again. Again.. not much.. but at least the scale is moving in the right direction. If we go by the scale at my house I lost .4 lbs. If we go by the doctors scale I lost.. 1.4 lbs.
Docs always right.. right???

Off to shoot some hoops with hub. Fun fun!!

A trip to the grocery store

Let me start off by saying that I have a sick fondness of going to the grocery store. I love it. I love planning the whole trip, I love going aisle to aisle looking for all my goodies, but most of all.. I love the amazing deals I get.

For the last couple of months (I think since April or May) I've been using The Grocery Game to help cut my costs for groceries. I cannot say enough about this website. Here's how it works:


You have to sign up and it does cost.. although not much especially considering the deal it helps you get. You can do a month long trial for $1. And that includes as many stores as you want. After a month, if you choose to stick with it, it's $10 for your first store, then $5 for each extra one you choose. They charge your account every 8 weeks. You also have to clip coupons out of the Sunday paper every week.

What they do is keep track of the sale trends with the stores. She breaks up deals into three categories: Needs (in black, still on sale but not the best deal possible.. only get it if you need it), Blues (Stock up, great deal), and Free (in green and self explanatory.. it's free). It's different then you just using your coupons when you see something on sale, because of the fact that they keep up with the trends. They know when you'll be able to use your coupon to get the best price possible.

I'm horrible at explaining things so I'll show by example. Today I went to Publix and Bi-Lo. At Publix I spent $30.17, but saved $24.80. I got fish oil vitamens and a bottle of Worchester (sp) sauce for free. At Bi-Lo, my total before savings was $23.79.. I actually spent $13.41. I got Eggo Waffles for .14 cents!!!!
I don't pay over .50 cents for deoderant or toothpaste. It's incredible and I get very excited over this. The longer you do it, the less you ever need this on the "need" list. I have 3 extra bottles of laundry detergent in stock and about 5 tubes of toothpaste.

The only catch is you can't be loyal to certain labels. .25 cents for Degree deoderant.. Yes please.. fine by me!

On a seperate note, I have to share with everyone how big of a fool I made of myself in the Publix parking lot on my way out. First you should know that I am not very observant to my surroundings. So at first when I couldn't find my car after shopping, i didn't panick too much. I thought, Oh I just may be in the next isle over. Not there. Next one over? Nope. Ok ok.. maybe just a couple spots down. Now, I'm by myself and realize I must look like a complete loon.. especially when I start cracking up at myself.. alone.. with my cart. So I start walking up and down every isle, at this point thinking someone may have stolen my car. But after about 5 minutes I found the dang thing.

Uhhhhh I worry about myself sometimes.

If you do decide to check out The Grocery Game, make sure you put my email address in as your referral! (jayetton@hotmail.com) You'll get me a couple free weeks :)

My Very First Award

Thank you so so much to Preppy Little Dress for giving me my first award! That was so sweet of her :)

In getting this reward I have to list 6 things that make me happy. I had a hard time narrowing it down.. I have 8!

* Unexpected, simple dates with my husband. (he called me just a few minutes ago and asked if I'd like to go to dinner tonight and get a few drinks. I was planning on cooking, so this is a huge relief)

* Ice Cream (any flavor ~ any time of day)

* Giving gifts to people when they least expect it and seeing their reaction (on the rare occasion that I'm able to)

* A baby's laughter

* Surprises (no matter how small)

* Spending time with my family

* Being able to put the windows down in the fall

* Hearing a favorite song that I haven't heard in ages

I also have to return this to 6 more people, so here you go!

High on Hairspray

Just Ask Beth

Tidbits of Drama

All Things Fluffy.. Fashionable.. & Famous

The JQ Lounge

... and now I'm a grownup

I look forward to reading yall everyday... make sure to pass this on to 6 more people. You just may brighten their day!

Bachelorette and Pork Chops

I spend more time trying to think of a clever title for my blogs than I do actually writing the thing. I end up giving up after about ehh.. a minute, write my actual blog then just come up with something out of frustration. I think mostly because I have no idea what I'm actually going to write about most of the time. It just comes out. See.. like this. This should be fair warning to you that this post will probably actually be a lot about nothing!

One of my best, oldest friends is getting married in 3 weeks! This weekend is her bachelorette party. Of course I am very much looking forward to it. Not only am I excited to celebrate this special time in her life, but selfishly, I am even more excited for a girls night out! I am stressing big time about spending money that we don't really have. Let me rephrase.. there's no really that belongs in that sentence!! We are flat broke!! What's that you say?? Go home early? Nah.. I'll skip the wine and stick with draft beer. I'm a girl who knows how to cut costs. I can do it! But on a serious note, I am nervous about the lack of money and would be looking forward to this much much more if it weren't for that little setback.

I made an amazing set of pork chops for dinner the other night. Since I am still thinking about them *which says a lot.. not the biggest fan of chops* I figured I'd share the recipe. I don't remember where I saw it and don't really remember how it went exactly but it went a little something like this:

2 pork chops
1/2 bottle of terryaki merinade (sp)
1 crushed clove of garlic (it might have been two... use your judgement)
salt and pepper... however much you want to use.

Mix all that in a bowl.
Preheat oven to 350.
Put chops in a baking dish and pour half of the mixture in it. Cook for 15 min.
Flip those bad boys over and pour the rest of the mixture. Cook another 15 minutes.

Easy as that! They were delish. Served it with some fresh green beans and rice. Hub loved it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!!

Hope the bach. party doesn't interfere with any big football games. Don't think I won't be that tomboyish girl at the bar posted up by the TV watching the game. That's me!