Thursday 13- Birthday Wish List

For some reason Blogger moved this from May 12 to May 19...I don't know why....

With my 33rd birthday approaching faster than a runaway train, I thought for my Thursday 13 I would make a wish list of things I would like to get for my birthday. For those playing along at home, my birthday is in 11 days. ;)

1. My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir by Dick Van Dyke. I know, no one is surprised this is first on my list. :) I LOVE all of the publicity his book is getting. He's been on numerous talk shows over the past few weeks talking about it. I even forced myself to watch The View so I could see him (for the record, I only watched the segment he was on, those ladies are so annoying!!)

2. Texas Rangers iPhone cover. My Texas. My Rangers.

3. Breakfast at Tiffany's Little Black purse. I already have a few Audrey Hepburn purses, but a girl can NEVER have too many purses, right?? ;)

4. Anna to the Infinite Power DVD. I'm not a huge Sci-Fi person, but I LOVED this movie when I was younger. I watched it all the time. It's FINALLY on DVD!

 5. Yahtzee Elvis (Can). I like Yahtzee, I like Elvis. It's the best of both worlds! :)

6. Audrey Hepburn tote. Like I said, a girl can never have too many purses!

7. Fitzwilly DVD. I saw this a few years ago on Turner Classic Movies. Dick Van Dyke was great in it! And it has Agent 99 from Get Smart in it too!

 8. Texas Rangers throw. 

9. The Audrey Hepburn Treasures.

10. The Next Voice You Hear DVD. I saw this movie on AMC or maybe TCM when I was a teenager. I love it. I have a worn out VHS copy of it, it's FINALLY on DVD. It's a great movie. It has a very young Nancy Davis in it (you probably know her better as Nancy Reagan.) 

 11. Half Price Books gift card. I LOVE to read. I know, it's all about "electronic reading devices" these days, but I still like holding a real book. I can spend hours in a book store (nerd alert). And I love HPB because I can get a lot of books for a reasonable price (I bought 8 books for under $20 once!) :)

12. Dr Pepper Bottle Clock. I love this. I think it's greatness!! :) Yes, I would totally have this up in my apartment.

13. Tickets to the June 26 New Kids on the Block concert at the AAC. I know, I can't believe I just admitted it either. I would never pay for tickets to see them, BUT I would totally go if I had free tickets. Since a 12 year old Rachel never got to see them in concert (even though she really wanted to), I figured a 33 year old Rachel should go.

Me at age 12, holding my nephew James and rocking out in my NKOTB shirt! And rolled up cut-offs. Awesome.

For more Thursday 13 blogs, go here.

Stop by For the Love of Blogs and meet some new friends today for Thirsty Thursday!! Cheers!!

XOXO!

Happy birthday King George!

If you are a fan of country music, you know I'm talking about George Strait (who turned 59 today). If you aren't a fan of country music, it's okay, I still love you.  BUT, I wanted to dedicate my post today to the birthday boy and post some of my favorite George songs!

Have a great Wednesday y'all!!

XOXO!

Blogger Woes

If you are a fellow user of Blogger, you understand that last week we had some "issues" with our blogs. Posts were disappearing. Comments were disappearing. I couldn't log in to post comments on other blogs. I've been afraid to update my blog the past few days, fearing that my post would all of a sudden be gone. I'm going to give it a shot today though. I hope y'all see this! FYI: If you commented on one of my posts last week, please be sure it's still there. I love reading your comments, I don't want to overlook any!!

So, anyways, I had a great weekend spending time with some of my family that lives in the Dallas area. It's sad that we live about 25 minutes from each other, yet, we don't see each other as much as I wish. I know, life happens, people get busy, but still. We are going to try and be better and set aside time at least every OTHER month for dinner or something.

On Saturday I went to a birthday party for my cousin's daughters (their birthdays are close together). It was so much fun! I enjoyed spending time with the family. Sunday his oldest daughter had a dance recital, so I met up with them for that too. Oh yes, pictures. Of course I took pictures!! :)

Birthday girl Emmy waiting patiently to eat her cupcake

Birthday girl Madison- I can't believe she is already 8!!

Their big brother A.J. taking a picture with Ray-Ray (that is what my cousin's kids call me). In fact, if you call me Rachel, they will say,  "No, that is Ray-Ray."

After Madison's dance recital on Sunday. She did such a good job! And her outfit was super cute!

Me and my cousin Jason- causing trouble together since the late 1970's! :)

 

Me and Jason's wife Rachael. She is the sweetest person ever!

So when I wasn't hanging out with family this past weekend, I was cleaning my apartment. My friend Katie will be here for her Texas visit in TWO days! Be prepared next week for a full recap of our adventures!!

Have a great day!

XOXO!



Wednesday Ramblings

So, FIFTEEN years ago today, my friend Zach and I attended our senior prom. Oh yes, it's true, 15 years ago. Where does the time go?? If you follow me on Twitter, you have already seen this gem of a picture, but I'm posting it here too. Yes, I know. You don't have to say anything! ;)

May 1996

Me and Zach a few months ago during my Austin visit

It seems May 11 is a big day in my life. On May 11, 1986, I was baptized! It was just 12 days shy of my 8th birthday. I remember I got baptized on Mother's Day. There are no pictures of the actual baptism, but here is a picture of a 7 year old Rachel.

Me at age 7, holding my niece Alice. Alice is the mother of my great-nephews C and E! :) And if you are going to say the blonde kid from 7th Heaven looks like me, too late, I've already been told that!

So, yesterday I was very excited to receive my new Rangers tank top from Playertees. FYI, Josh Hamilton is #32!! You can't see all of it, but it says "I live for this".

My new Rangers tank top!

PlayerTees is AWESOME. Check out their website here. If you need any sort of custom made shirt/tank top/sweatshirt, they can do it. It doesn't have to be sports related, they do all sorts of designs. Just email them and ask! They already have a bunch of designs available, so check them out! They have great customer service and I got my shirt so fast. I ordered it late last week and got it in the mail yesterday (possibly Monday, I wasn't able to check my mail Monday). And that was with "normal" shipping. If you email them, let them know that Rachel, AKA, Averyfan, from Twitter, recommended them to you! :)

So since I'm talking about the Rangers, I had to share this site with you (thank you Katie for sending this to me!) It's called Cupcake Fabulous.

Now, they are only available in the Dallas area, but I wanted to share this with my DFW friends (especially my fellow Rangers fan peeps!) Too cute!! When you go to their website, scroll down and check out their other stuff. I noticed they also have Dr Pepper cupcakes!! :)

Picture courtesy of Cupcake Fabulous

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!! We are halfway to the weekend, hang in there!!

XOXO!

101 in 1001 Update

I'm SO BAD about posting updates on this, which is sad since I'm supposed to blog like once a month about my progress on my list. For those new to reading my blog, back in November I created a 101 in 1001 list (click here to view it). It's 101 things I want to do/complete in the next 1001 days. I started on November 30, 2010 and have until August 29, 2013. I know, I know. I still have over two years, but, I don't want to be like I was, I mean, some people were, in college and wait until the last minute to try and finish a project. ;) Just as an FYI, you can always find the list via the header at the top of my page. I try and update it as soon as I complete (or start) a task. I'll try and be better about blogging at least once a month about my progress!!

Completed tasks (since my last update):

#28. Carpool to work 2 times a week for 3 months. I've actually done better than this. I've been carpooling for over three month. There are three of us in the carpool and we drive in together Monday-Thursday. Two of us are off early most Fridays, so we don't carpool that day. It's really nice only have to drive every two weeks. It has saved A LOT on gas money!

#39. Check out job postings in other departments, preferably the public relations department. I have been doing this on a monthly basis. Unfortunately we don't have many new job openings right now. I'm not saying I'm not happy in my current work position (I love my department and my boss is the best), but I'm always looking at opportunities to advance! And if I could write again, I would love that. It would be nice to use my Communications degree!! ;)

#42. File away old jobs at least once a month. We recently went "paperless" on most of our jobs so I no longer have a mountain of paperwork to file each month. **insert happy dance here**

#62. No video, computer or iPhone games for seven consecutive days. Okay, after I got over my Angry Birds addiction (don't get me wrong, I still like it, I'm just not playing it every day anymore), this wasn't that hard to complete. I might have even gone two weeks without playing. I rarely play computer games (maybe an occasional game of Spider Solitaire) and I don't own video games. This was really more for iPhone related games, I just wanted to include all kinds!

#79. Give a generous tip for a job well done (either at a restaurant, hair salon or nail salon). Two weeks ago a friend and I ate at Uno Chicago Grill in Fort Worth. The poor kid who was our waiter had to put up with me and my friend debating like 20 minutes over the menu (and we asked A LOT of questions). I had never been there, I needed to be sure I knew what I was ordering. :) There was a TV with the Rangers game on right in front of us (you know where my attention was- not the menu- so every time he came by I was like, "I'm sorry, I haven't looked yet"). He thought our comments about the game were funny though (they weren't that busy so he came by our table a lot). Then after the game he was nice enough to put on the closed captioning on the TV so we could at least read what was being said during post game interviews (they aren't allowed to turn up the volume). He made sure we had plenty of Dr Pepper throughout our meal (which in itself is a reason for good tip). So, I left him a pretty good tip, he deserved it!

#91. Go a week without complaining in traffic. You know, I didn't specify that I had to be driving while I was in traffic. On weeks I don't drive the carpool, I don't complain at all! ;) 

#95. Be in bed before 10pm every night for a week. A few weeks ago, I was pretty much asleep by 9:30 every night (granted, I wasn't feeling good, but still, I was in bed early that week!) 

#96. Watch a sunrise. I woke up extra early one morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I watched the sunrise from my apartment window.

#97. Watch a sunset. A few weeks ago we were having awful thunderstorms/tornadoes watches, etc. One of those days, late in the day, the sun came out. I watched the sunset from my living room. The sky looked so pretty. I wish I had thought to take a picture! :)

In-Progress tasks (since my last update):

#17. Go through my closet once a year and donate clothes to Mission Arlington (1/3). About two months ago, I filled up 4 bags of clothes/shoes to donate to Mission Arlington. And yes, I used that as an excuse to go clothes shopping! :)

#47. Go for a walk 20 times (6/20). I've found myself doing this more often than I thought, I probably could have made it 40 times (but I'm not changing it). :)

#50. Eat at 10 restaurants in Dallas/Fort Worth I've never been to before (1/10). I've already mentioned it, but I went to Uno Chicago Grill in Fort Worth a few weeks ago. I know it's not a "Dallas only" restaurant, BUT it's the only location in the state of Texas! :)

#51. Learn to cook 10 new meals (that don't include the microwave) (1/10). I made chicken spaghetti a while back (maybe two months ago). It was pretty good! I love pasta....yummy!

#60. Create 3 new craft projects that aren't scrapbooking related (2/3). At Christmas, I made a tissue box cover for a friend. And at Mother's Day, I made a "brag book" for my mom, sister and niece. 

Tissue box cover

 

Brag book I made for my mom for Mother's Day. I used layouts found here and inserted pictures of my great-nephews in them. I then pasted them on 4X6 index cards and punched holes in the top and put ribbon through it. I made a similar one for my sister and niece!

 

 

Just a sample of what the inside pages looked like. Top is pictures of C and E. Bottom is pictures of G and B.

#71. Make a donation to a different charity twice a year (1/6). I've actually already made two donations, but they were both to C.J. Wilson's Children's Charity. I'll make a donation to another charity before the end of the year! :)

With C.J. Wilson at his charity event a few weeks ago. I made the picture black and white because I looked so pastely-white next to a very tan C.J.

#72. Send 10 snail mail letters to friends/family (not including holidays or birthday) (1/10). I mailed a "thinking of you" card to a friend not to long ago.

So, that is my latest update. I promise to be better about keeping you up-to-date. As always, check my progress here. 

I know that I'll be able to mark a few more off my list after my friend Katie's Texas visit next week! We have a road trip planned, as well as some museum visits (and we are going to try out some local restaurants). Wahoo!!

Have a great day! XOXO!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know, I'm a day late, BUT I was spending the weekend with my mom, so I have a good excuse why I wasn't online yesterday. :) I got home last night from my folks, and went into "veg mode", not wanting to do anything except sit and watch TV, so I didn't get a chance to log on my blog! I hope all of you moms (or those acting in the place of a mom) had a great day!

My weekend went great. You know I love family time. Got to spend Mother's Day with my mom and my two sisters. Oh yes, I have pictures!!

My mom with her three daughters. I didn't realize we were taking pictures, I had already changed out of my church clothes (no, I did NOT wear my Oak Ridge Boys Elvira shirt to church!) :)

Me and my momma!

Me with my sisters.

My great-nephew C with his Gigi. My mom got sunburned on Saturday while she was outside working at a bake sale (no pun intended). All these years she's told me to wear sunscreen when I go outside, and she forgot!! ;)

My great-nephew E showing Gigi her new oven mitts.

C playing with Aunt Mary

 

E is ready for lunch...and a nap! :)

XOXO!!

TGIF!

What a week! I'm so glad it's Friday! As soon as I get off work today, I'm heading to my folks for Mother's Day weekend! Looking forward to some family time!

So, it's been a while since I participated in Five Question Friday, so I thought it was time I linked up again!

1. Have you ever had a roommate?

Yes, when I was in college (and then two years right after college). When I first moved to Dallas, one of my former college roommates and I had an apartment together for about a year before I moved into the apartment I live in now. Right now my only roommate is Mordecai*.

2. How many names do you have (i.e. Prince Charming William Phillip Arthur Louis John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt)? 

I just have three. My first name, my middle name and my last  name. I did graduate high school with a girl who had 6 middle names (I'm not lying). I don't remember them all, but it took up two lines in our graduation program.

3. Did you watch the Royal Wedding?

No. Well, I saw about 10 seconds of it when I turned on WFAA to watch the morning news only to realize ABC had been hijacked by wedding coverage. No offense to William and Kate, I wish them all the joy and happiness in their marriage, but I just didn't see the appeal. Weddings just aren't a big deal to me. Maybe I'm not THAT girly. If my mother wouldn't kill me, I would totally elope whenever Joe Mauer and I get eventually married (like how I threw that in?) ;) He's tall, loves baseball and has cute ears (we've established my ears fetish in previous posts). And come on, how can you not love a guy who makes a milk commercial with his mom?? Too sweet!! <3

4. What is the messiest room in your house?

My bedroom, hands down. It's because I have so much crap junk stuff. Also, my bookcases won't fit in the living room, so both of them are in my bedroom. And seeing that I have more books than space, I have books stacked up around my room (and right now I have my scrapbooking stuff in the corner. I've been working on my World Series scrapbook from last year). I know what you are going to say. Get a (insert electronic book reader name here). I've tried reading on a Nook. There is just something about having an actual book in my hands when reading that makes it better. Maybe it's the feel and smell of a real book, I don't know. I know, I know, I'm weird.

5. What is your ideal Mother's Day?
Since I don't have kids, I can't answer this one. 

Head over to For the Love of Blogs and meet some new friends today!!

So, I realized this morning that 11 years ago today, I was attending my college graduation. Where does the time go?? I leave you with this "gem" of a picture!! Yes, yes, my hair was very blonde. Have a great weekend y'all!! XOXO!

Class of 2000! Look how young and carefree I was! What was I thinking?

*Mordecai is my teddy bear

Thursday Thirteen- Jimmy Stewart Movies

Keeping up with the movie theme for Thursday Thirteen, (click here for last week's list), I thought I would list 13 Jimmy Stewart movies that I like. Next to Dick Van Dyke, he's my second favorite actor!! :) I know some of you out there (you know who are you), don't particularly care for black and white movies, or "old movies", but honestly, I would rather watch one of those than some movies that come out these days! :) These are in no particular order by the way. As always, you can click on the name to get more information about the movie.

1. It's A Wonderful Life (1946): This is a must see at Christmastime. My sister and I usually watch it together at Thanksgiving (kicking off the "Christmas Movie Watching" season). But to be honest, I have watched this movie in the middle of summer before (some movies are just too good to only watch once a year).

2. Harvey (1950): One of my personal favorites. I love Jimmy Stewart's portrayal of Elwood P. Dowd, the man whose best friend is a 6 foot tall imaginary rabbit. 

3. The Philadelphia Story (1940): You can't go wrong if the movie has both Jimmy Stewart AND Cary Grant. **sigh**

4. Rear Window (1954): I love Alfred Hitchcock. This is one of my personal favorites. And man, Grace Kelly looked beautiful in this movie! 

5. The Stratton Story (1949): This story is based on major league baseball pitcher Monty Stratton, who lost his leg during a hunting accident. Side note: My mother once had an autographed Monty Stratton baseball (I believe she met him when she was younger), but my brothers took it outside and lost it. A few years ago my friend found a Monty Stratton autograph at a Chicago sports shop and gave it to me to give to my mom. :)

  

6. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): A man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate and runs into political corruption (I know, a shocker, right??)

7. Vertigo (1958): Another Hitchcock classic! It's about a detective who suffers from acrophobia and while investigating the strange activities of his friend's wife, he slowly becomes obsessed with her.

8. Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962): I saw this for the first time a few months ago (thank you Turner Classic Movies). It wasn't as good as some of his other movies, but it was still enjoyable!

9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): Am I going to get hate mail if I say I'm not the biggest fans of westerns? Still a good movie. And if you are a John Wayne fan you know that he is in this too!

10. Rope (1948): It seems Alfred Hitchcock was a fan of using Jimmy Stewart in his movies. This is about two roommates who strangle a classmate and hide his body in their apartment. They host a dinner party that includes the family and friends of the dead classmate, as a challenge to see how "perfect" their crime is. Jimmy Stewart plays the role of a professor (not either one of the roommates). Random fact of the day: This was Hitchcock's first color film.

11. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956): A Hitchcock film about a family that accidentally stumbles on an assassination plot while on vacation.

12. The Glenn Miller Story (1954): A biography of bandleader Glenn Miller. I remember watching this one when I was younger.

13. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991): He did the voice of Wylie Burp, the canine sheriff. This was the last movie he is credited in. Mr. Stewart passed away in 1997.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed my list! We are almost to Friday, have a great day y'all!

XOXO!

May the fourth be with you...

Happy Star Wars Day! May the fourth be with you! I'm sorry, I know it's cheesy, but it makes me laugh. And we have established in past posts that I'm a Star Wars nerd. In honor of Star Wars Day, I thought I would post these funny videos I found on YouTube. Someone has taken theme songs to different shows and made "Star Wars intros" with them. 

The Star Wars Dallas theme might be my favorite!



Although the A-Team theme is a very, very close second!



The Star Wars Friends theme



Star Wars Hawaii Five-O style



Star Wars as MacGyver



Have a great day!

XOXO!

Tired of the same old doormats?

For those tired of the same old doormats that just say, "Welcome", here are some suggestions of new ones! :) (some of these made me laugh very hard!) :)

I need this one!

This might only be available in Texas! ;)

 

Have a great day!

XOXO!