Stormy Weather...

Anyone else remember this video that would air on the Disney Channel back in the 80s? Am I the only one who remembers stuff like this? Anyways, I like Lena Horne, I think her version of this song is very good. And since it's been raining all day, I felt it was appropriate to post! :) Happy Monday!!

XOXO!

Manic Monday

I decided to steal borrow this little survey from my sweet homegirl Tonya. Hoping it takes my mind off this Manic Monday!

10 Places You Have Visited
1. Las Vegas, NV
2. New Orleans, LA
3. New York City, NY
4. Orlando, FL
5. Atlanta, GA
6. Mobile, AL
7. Santa Fe, NM
8. Phoenix, AZ
9. Greensboro, NC
10. Paris, TX

9 Items On Your Bucket List
1. Chase a tornado
2. Attend a baseball game at every MLB ballpark/stadium in the U.S. (and Canada)
3. Visit Europe
4. Swim with dolphins
5. Visit Disney World (or Disney Land). No, I've never been to either!
6. Publish one of my short stories
7. Visit Cooperstown (Baseball Hall of Fame)
8. Visit Graceland
9. Go snorkeling

8 Things You Love to Eat
1. Steak
2. Spaghetti
3. Chicken
4. Mashed potatoes (with melted cheese on top)
5. Tortellini
6. Pizza (can you tell I like Italian food?)
7. Macaroni and cheese 
8. Black eyed peas (am I the only person who loves them?)

7 Items Currently On Your Desk
1. Texas Rangers calendar (I know, you are shocked)
2. Hand sanitizer
3. Bottle of water
4. Wheat Thins (I was having a snack)
5. Kleenex
6. Day Planner
7. Reports for work

6 People (Not Living With You) That You Talk To/Text/Tweet At Least Once A Week
1. My mom
2. Monica
3. Katie
4. Khrystal
5. Brandon
6. Donny

5 Favorite Songs
1. God Bless the Broken Road- Rascal Flatts
2. Honey Bee- Blake Shelton
3. Give You Glory- Jeremy Camp
4. I Can Only Imagine- MercyMe
5. Old Alabama- Brad Paisley

4 Things You Cannot Get Through The Day Without
1. Brushing my teeth
2. Dr Pepper
3. My iPhone
4. Chapstick

3 Models of Vehicles You Have Owned
1. 1985 Ford LTD (thus starting my hatred of the Ford Motor Company)
2. 1996 Dodge Neon
3. 2001 Nissan Xterra

2 Physical Traits That Attract You to Someone:
1. Ears (okay, not really, but all my friends will be expecting to see that listed). I'll say eyes.
2. Smile

1. Word to Describe Yourself
1. Unique (it sounds nicer than weird!)

Have a great day y'all!!

XOXO!

Super Bowl Commercials

First of all, congratulations to the Green Bay Packers and their biggest fan in the state of Texas, my nephew James, on the Super Bowl win last night. I think somewhere in Lubbock my nephew was having a "sports cry". No, we don't know why he's a Packers fan, but I'll give him credit, he's been a Packers fan since he was about 5 years old (he's 20 now). The last time they won the Super Bowl he was 7.

 

Me and my nephew James at his first NFL game in 2007 (outside the old Texas Stadium). Yes, he really wore that cheesehead the whole time!

I know a lot of my readers are not as big into sports as I am, but, even my friends who hate sports enjoy the commercials during the Super Bowl. I thought I would post some of my favorite ones from last night.

Volkswagen Using "the Force":

(yes, I posted this one last Friday, but it is still great. And it was my favorite one of the night!) Go here to read an article and see a video about the kid who played Darth Vader!

Best Buy Bieber Fever:

(this made me laugh. Gotta give Justin Bieber "props" for making fun of himself!)

Doritos Pug Attack:

(what can I say, I love pugs!!) :)

Bridgestone Carma:

Fast and Furious 5 Trailer:
(okay, it's not a "real" Super Bowl commercial, but I did enjoy this one! Um...Paul Walker and Vin Diesel back together again. It never gets old!) ;) I'm already planning a Girls Night Out to see that movie in April! Who wants to come along? :)

I also wanted to post a few of my favorite Super Bowl commercials from over the past few years.

Streaker:

Etrade Baby:

(I love these commercials!)

Clydesdale Donkey:

It's Just Another Manic Monday...

What...a....day. I was all pumped after my relaxing weekend of doing nothing but watching movies and TV and man, did my Monday start off crazy. Is it a full moon or something? My work day has been insane!! I'm thinking if anyone else bothers me today, I should just pull a "Nolan Ryan" on them. For those not familiar with baseball, please go here to view the video (MLB won't let me embed it here). Trust me, it's worth it. If you are having a bad day, it might make you feel better!

 

Nolan had the right idea of what to do if someone messes with you!

Speaking of Nolan (yes, we are on a first name basis, he calls me Rachel...well, if he knew me he would call me Rachel), today is his birthday! HAPPY 64th BIRTHDAY NOLAN!! Even if you aren't a Rangers fan (and if you aren't, you really should reconsider), you have to love Nolan Ryan. He's just awesome. I could list all his achievements and stats, but since most of you aren't as into obsessed passionate about baseball as I am, you can just go here if you want to see them. :)

 

The birthday boy!

Like I mentioned earlier, I spent all weekend watching movies/TV. Hey, we all deserve a "me" weekend every now and then. I needed some "down" time. In fact, # 90 on my 101 in 1001 list was to spend a day in bed. And I pretty much did that on Saturday (with the exception of going out to get food at one point). So, that is one more item on my list I can mark off. Wahoo! 

I finally saw The Proposal on Friday (yes, I'm WAY behind in my movie watching) and just have this to say about it: "Hello Ryan Reynolds!" ;) I'm thinking my life would probably be complete if I could get C.J. Wilson and Ryan Reynolds to fight over me. ;) Um...oh sorry, moving on...

So, I decided to start another blog this weekend. Part of my 101 in 1001 is to write reviews on books that I read. And since I just joined the Book Lovers Group on For The Love of Blogs, I thought it might be easier to put my reviews on a separate blog (just so it's a little more organized). I decided to also include movie reviews as well. I'll only update that blog for reviews, my regular ramblings will still be found here, so don't think I'm giving up this blog!! :)

If you are interested in my opinions of books/movies, please check out Reviews by Rachel here (I'm still working on it so excuse the mess- it still looks a little cluttered). I actually wrote my first review the other day. I FINALLY saw the movie Inception. What did I think of it? Click here to find out. FYI, I didn't post any spoilers in the review! :)

Hope everyone has a great week. I knew that bragging out the 75 degree weather this weekend was a bad idea. There is ice, sleet, snow and wind chills near zero in the forecast this week in Dallas. EEK!!

XOXO!

Monday, Monday...

I've been off-line since Friday late morning, so if you visited me on Friday from For the Love of Blogs or Five Question Friday, please bear with me, I promise to come visit your blogs soon (hopefully today)! I normally don't take so long to visit someone who stops by! :)

As some of you know (especially if you follow me on Twitter), I went out of town on Friday afternoon. My BFF Mandy had a baby shower this weekend so I went out of town for that. I also got to see some other friends I hadn't seen in a while. It was a lot of fun! I thought I would share some pictures of my trip.

 

Hanging out with Thomas and Kris, two of my buddies from college. Thomas always makes weird faces in pictures!

 

The crackers and cheese display at the baby shower. Texas, our Texas...all hail the mighty state...

 

With my sweet friend Kirk-we went to high school together. I hadn't seen him in a few years. This picture was after the conversation on how our 15 year high school reunion is this year. EEK!

 

My gifts for Mandy's baby. Yes, I got my non sports loving BFF a Texas Rangers shirt for her baby! ;)

 

But she loved it anyways! :) I will teach her daughter to love baseball. It's my civic duty!

 

Me and my friend Betsy (Mandy's little sister). I've known her since she was like 5 (I feel old!) I'm the reason she likes baseball (are you surprised??) :)

 

Me with Mandy and Kristin. I have been friends with them for almost 23 years. Where does the time go? Yes, Kristin's little guy is trying to hold my hand! ;)

Me and Ke'Tryk- another friend from college. 

 

Hanging out with my honorary little sister Jami and our friend Kristal (and their little ones). More peeps I've know over 20 years. I miss these gals!

So, my friend James David Carter did a cover on Garth Brooks' song "The Dance". I love this song! I wanted to share it with y'all today. If you want to know more about him, check out his Facebook page here or his Twitter page here. Tell him that I sent ya! :)

Hope everyone is having a great day! If you have today off work, I hope you are enjoying it. If you are at work like me, I hope you are surviving!!

Love and hugs!

Blog Award

 

My sweet friend Shalyn gave me a blogging award! Thanks girl! :)

The conditions:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about this award.

Thank you so much to Shalyn over at Laugh Until Your Cheeks Hurt. She is awesome (and not just because she also likes toe socks). She is adorable- go check out her blog. Tell her hi, make a new friend! :)

7 Things About Myself. For some of my long time readers, a few of these might be repeats (I'm forgetting what I've listed before!) ;)

1. I love chocolate milk. I don't like the "pre-made" stuff. I prefer to make my own. And it has to be made with Nestle Quik Chocolate Powder (I'm sorry, it's NesQuik now. It will always be Nestle Quik to me). My parents decided to try another brand one time when I was younger. My mom told my dad I only liked Nestle Quik. He said I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I took one sip and was like, "What is this? This is not Nestle Quik!" I'm sorry, I'm a chocolate milk snob like that.

 

Old school Nestle Quik

2. Breakfast At Tiffany's is probably my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie. It's hard to pick a favorite Audrey movie since I love them all, but Breakfast At Tiffany's is the one I've seen the most!

 

Me having "breakfast" at Tiffany's when I went to New York City in 2007.

3. I'm a YouTube junkie. I spend entirely too much time on that website! I might need an intervention..

4. I would like to play a dead body on CSI (or any of the other crime shows I watch). I'm not an actress, but I feel I could lie there and not move. Oh I'm very serious about this! Someone make this happen! :)

5. I love peanut butter. I put peanut butter on my pancakes and I've been known to enjoy an afternoon snack of carrots dipped in peanut butter. Don't knock it until you try it! :)

6. I don't like pie or cake. It's not a health thing- I'm just not a fan of it. My co-workers always give me a hard time about it whenever we have cake for someone's birthday or anniversary. I've always been like that, even when I was little. You can ask my mother.

7. I dislocated my knee while playing soccer in high school. To this day I still have issues with my knee. It acts up a lot when it gets cold or rainy. I can predict rain the day before. I'm better than a meteorologist! :)

 

Freshman year, 1993-We've already discussed my awful bangs, no reason to bring it up again...

I'm supposed to pass this along to 15 FABULOUS bloggers, but I'm running out of time (it's later than I thought). I'm going to do a cop out and say to check out the lovelies under "sweet bloggin' friends" and "favorite blogs". They are all deserving of this award. If I follow you, PLEASE post this award on your page. You are all wonderful! Love and hugs to you all!! :)

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had some snow in Dallas yesterday and we had ice this morning. I am late leaving for work because traffic was so bad due to icy roads (I have a 30 mile commute to work, I didn't want to risk it). I'm about to get ready to go out and brave it. Supposedly the roads are a little better. We shall see. If I skid on any ice, I'm turning around and coming back home!

Happy Monday beautiful people!!

It's Monday...

After two short work weeks in a row, I've come to the depressing realization that I have to work five days this week (I know, I know, woe is me). So I thought in case anyone else was suffering from the "I have to be back at work after the holidays and it's Monday" blues, I would post a few funnies to help you get through the day.

A friend sent me this on Twitter. I laughed so hard. Someone took the trailer from Fiddler on the Roof and mixed in the audio from the movie You Got Served. I will never look at Fiddler on the Roof the same way again! :)

This is another one using You Got Served, but this time they used the trailer to The Wizard of Oz. I guess You Got Served was the popular audio for these videos.

Here are some more funnies.

 

I found this one on a fail blog website. hehehe...

 

As a disgruntled Cowboys fan, I find this one funny! :)

 

Jedi Squirrels! How can you NOT laugh at this?

 

Had to work in my crime show addiction-even on a funny post!

 

I love Nolan!

You'll never look at Disney movies the same away again..hehehe...

Yes, I know, I'm easily amused! But it's helping me get through the day!!

Happy Monday my lovely friends!! Make it a good week!

I'm back!

Sorry friends for the unexpected absence, I've been sick since last week, but I'm back in the land of the living now (gotta love the flu and cold season!) THANKFULLY I didn't have the flu, just a bad cold that turned into a sinus infection. I'm going to take up stock in Kleenex, I've gone through so many boxes over the past few days. Ug!

Anyways, moving on. First, I've added a new tab to my blog. Part of my 101 in 1001 challenge included watching movies from the AFI Top 100 movies list and reading books off the banned book list. I've added those lists here. I marked the ones that I had already seen/read. I will update that page each time I see one of the movies or read one of the books.

So, I meant to post these last week, but since I was feeling so bad, I didn't get a chance to. These are pictures of my family at Thanksgiving! We had a total of 32 people there. And we were still missing 4 (two sister in laws and two nephews were not there). Again, this is just my immediate family! :) Thanks for letting me share these!

 

My great-nephew "E" with my mom (he calls her "Gigi")

 

Me and my nephew James. I used to be taller than him!

 

Me and my nephew Jake. Yes, he too was once shorter than me.

 

My Bubba with our mom (the love of the Rangers runs in our family!) : )

My brother Mark with his kids (and a few of their significant others)

 

My nephew-in-law Ray can catch a football AND hold on to his son ("C") at the same time.

 

My lovely niece-in-law Jennifer and her son "B"

  

My beautiful niece Alice reading a book to her son "C".

 

Action shot of me eating. Yes, that is ketchup on my plate, I wasn't kidding about it!

 

Me with my siblings.

 

 

 

Lots of football watching. The look of pain on my face is most likely from the Cowboys game.

 

Me with my nephew Jonathan. They are all pretty much taller than me now!

 

Me with my niece Naomi and her future hubby Bryson (he survived our crazy Thanksgiving crowd. Welcome to the family Bryson!) :)

 

My dad with my great-nephew "G". I think he was standing on my dad's foot.

Me with my nephew Greg- he's about 2 years older than me

 

"G" with Aunt Rachel

 

My beautiful nieces Katie and Stephanie

"E" and Aunt Rachel picking out a Christmas tree. It looks like we are praying over this one.

 

 "E" and Aunt Rachel found a tree just his size. I love this picture!

 

"C" liked smelling each tree.

 

I love this picture of "E" and my mom!