First Things First

Along with the Sunday Social post, I'm also stealing this from Erin. This is actually from last week, but it looks like there is no First Things First post for THIS Tuesday, so I'm posting from last week's instead!

First thing I would do/buy if I won the lottery

Definitely pay off what we still owe, which is our house and our two cars. Then sell the house and move, most likely to Texas. I'm not interested in owning a huge house, we would buy something that is a good size for us, fill it with amazing furnishings, and buy new cars. I would definitely give a huge chunk of it to my parents as well, and probably put the rest in the bank so we could live all the interest and never have to worry about finances again. Oh, and definitely, definitely travel.

First person I call when I get amazing news

Josh! He's my best friend as well as my husband so I know he'll be just as thrilled about the news. After that, my parents and my best friends!

First thing I do when I've had a bad day

Go home, put on my sweatpants, and curl up on the couch with my dogs and a good DVD or Lifetime movie! And venting also helps....at least it helps me. Maybe not Josh, since he's usually on the receiving end! But I usually feel better!!

Sunday Social

Stealing this from Erin....thought it looked like a fun idea so I figured I'd give it a try!

1. Did you sleepwalk as a child? No not as a child, but as I got older and started working, I would try to do work in my sleep. I was asleep enough to think it was real, but awake enough to know it wasn't, if that makes sense. When I worked at Ukrop's, I would literally get up during the night and start walking around my room as though I was pushing a grocery cart. Or when I worked at the Sleep Disorders Center, I would sit up convinced I needed to be taking a patient's vitals, and I'd start looking for a clipboard. I told myself I was too tired and wanted to sleep, but then I'd argue that I needed to do this or I would be fired. I couldn't fully convince myself that it was the middle of the night and it was okay to go to sleep. Many times I'd try to tell Josh I needed my clipboard.... after this happened at 2:00am three or four times, he stopped being amused by it and started getting irritated at having his sleep disturbed!!

2. Did you ever try to run away or sneak out of your house? Run away? No, I told my parents multiple times when I was mad at them that I was going to run away, but let's face it, when you live on a 19-acre property in the middle of Beaverdam, and it's like 20 minutes to the nearest gas station (by car), how far is a 6-year-old who is scared of being outside at night REALLY going to get??

3. Did you have any imaginary friends? No, I really wanted one and I kept trying to make one up, especially based on this book "Jessica" that I had read where the girl had an imaginary friend, but I'd forget about her all the time. I was too lazy to keep track of an imaginary friend.

4. Did you ever go toilet papering? No I was boring lol!

5. Did you ever sneak tv shows you weren’t allowed to watch? We didn't have Direct TV until I was in 8th grade, so up until that time, all that was on during the day was soap operas and those were super boring. I did rent a rated R film in high school, but then my mom discovered it when it was time to return it, and she was NOT happy.

Easter 2013

Wow, we are already 4 months into the new year!! I can't believe time has gone so fast. Maybe it seems later in the year than it is because Easter was so early this year, on the last day of March instead of sometime during April. It came so early this year that I didn't even decorate; I normally have Easter decorations all over the house but with only two weeks after St. Patrick's Day, I just didn't want to put everything out for only 2 weeks. Josh and I spent the holiday down in Beaverdam, celebrating with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. Josh is planning to convert to Catholicism, which is my religion, so we have been working on getting into the habit of going to church every Sunday. There is a new church in Leesburg that we have started attending, but for Easter  we planned to go down to St. Ann's in Ashland, which is the church where we were married. Unfortunately, we hit traffic on the way and we weren't able to attend Easter Mass, but we will definitely be at Mass next year. Easter is when Josh will officially become Catholic, so that is something we are really looking forward to!

My parents made a delicious meal for Easter.....we had turkey, ham (none for me because pigs are my favorite animal!), wild rice, garlic mashed potatoes with cheese (compliments of my sister-in-law!), green beans with almonds, corn souffle, fruit salad, and rolls. For dessert, my mom made a Hummingbird Cake, which is 4 layers and is made up of pineapple, bananas, pecans, vanilla, cinnamon, etc, and has a cream cheese frosting, along with frosting between each layer. I helped with the frosting and I can't lie, I snuck a few tastes in there as well! It is a recipe from 1978, and was featured in Southern Living magazine...to this day it is still the most requested dessert in the magazine!

The actual holiday itself was pretty gray and rainy and gloomy, unfortunately. The weather has been so back and forth lately, so I'm just looking forward to finally having some nice days soon, even though it would've been nice for everyone out there to have decent weather for hunting eggs! But it was a nice day nonetheless; we were with family and that's all that matters. We wanted to spend some time that day with our friends James and Traci and their kids Kala (16), Austin (10) and Hailey (10 months), but of course we hit traffic on the way back and got home too late (not a huge fan of holidays on Sundays when we have to work the next day!!), so instead we went by their house on Monday evening, so the kids could open their Easter baskets. And of course I couldn't resist making up a basket for my husband as well! You're never too old for a chocolate bunny every now and then!

Josh's Easter basket:

Easter baskets for Austin and Kala, and a stuffed bunny for Hailey:

Hummingbird Cake, pre-frosting:

My dad carving the turkey:

Multi-tasking mom:

Yummy food and pretty flowers!

 

 Cake!

My mom cutting the cake:

My outdoor decorations: