It's Friday! Can I Get an Amen?

First of all, I wanted to let y'all know I created a "fan" page for my blog on Facebook. If you are interested in "liking" it, please go here (or search Randomness With Rachel). For those of you who have asked, if you "like" my page, I cannot see the information on your profile (unless you don't have it set to private).

Second of all, can I just say I'm so glad it's Friday. Good grief, what a week. I'm too excited that it's Friday to go into all the gory details of my week, but man, I'm glad it's the weekend. Do you have big plans? Anyone who lives in the Dallas area knows where I'll be this weekend: Rangers Fanfest. Oh yes my friends. Baseball season is around the corner (okay, it's still 70 days away-but it's getting closer). If you want to read of my adventures at last year's Fanfest, go here. You can bet that next week I will bore enlighten thrill bombard you with my adventures of Fanfest this year. It's supposed to be bigger and better. Wahoo!!

1. Where did you meet your spouse...

Okay, I'm not even writing that whole question out. I have yet to meet him. Although I'm 81.4 percent sure that Zachary Levi (from Chuck) is my soul mate (I have mentioned this on my blog before, many times in fact). ;)

He's so adorkable!

2. What is your favorite room in your house?

Probably my loft. I have a two story apartment. I have an upstairs room that I use as my sports memorabilia/craft room/storage for my rarely used pilates equipment. I love it! Yes, I know, I have a lot of Spurs stuff. I have mentioned before that I use to live in San Antonio. I also grew up hearing my dad and brothers cheer for them (my folks are from San Antonio). Don't worry Mavs friends, I like the Mavs too (even though I've been told that is a NBA sin- whatever!) ;)

 

 

  

 

 

 

3. Can you wiggle your ears?

Um, no. Can you?

4. What is your evening ritual?
It all depends on if I go out after work. The one thing that stays the same is that right before I got to bed, I wash my face, brush my teeth, read my Bible and then put in my mouth guard. Yeah, I grind my teeth in my sleep. My dentist has been yelling at me to make sure I wear my mouth guard at night. Can I just say it's the most unattractive thing ever? No, I won't take a picture of me wearing it! This is as close as you'll get!

5. How many hours of sleep do you need a night to function?

I aim for 8, but that rarely happens. I try and get anywhere from 6-7 hours, but that's only on a good night. I have had sleeping issues my whole life where I wake up during the night A LOT. Let's just say I'm very familiar with what is on TV between the hours of 2-6am. :(

And lastly, yesterday I received a Christmas present in the mail from my sweet friend Jillana. I LOVE this. I think I'm going to keep it out all year long!! :)

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Take some time and head over to For The Love of Blogs and meet some new friends today!!

Thursday Thirteen- Remembering Audrey Hepburn

If you know me at all, you know that Audrey Hepburn is my favorite actress of all time. Last year on the anniversary of Audrey Hepburn's death, I posted some of my favorite Audrey movies (go here for that post). Today, I thought I would list 13 interesting facts about Audrey for my Thursday 13. 

Audrey Kathleen Ruston-Hepburn

May 4, 1929-January 20, 1993

1. Everyone remembers when Marilyn Monroe serenaded President John F. Kennedy on his birthday in 1962. What is often forgotten is that Audrey Hepburn sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to JFK on his final birthday in 1963.

2. She was fluent in English, Spanish, French, Dutch/Flemish and Italian.

3. She had a breed of tulip named after her in 1990.

4. She turned down a role in the film The Diary of Anne Frank because, as a young girl in Holland during the war, she had witnessed Nazi soldiers publicly executing people in the streets and herding Jews onto railroad cars to be sent to death camps. She said that participating in the film would bring back too many painful memories for her.

5. She won the 1953 Best Actress Academy Award for Roman Holiday. On March 25, 1954, she accepted the award from the much revered Academy president Jean Hersholt. After accepting the award, Audrey kissed him smack on the mouth, instead of the cheek, in her excitement. Minutes after accepting her Oscar, Audrey realized that she'd misplaced it. Turning quickly on the steps of the Center Theater in New York, she raced back to the ladies' room, retrieved the award, and was ready to pose for photographs.

6. She donated all the salaries she earned for her final projects to UNICEF (Love Among Thieves, Always and Garden of the World With Audrey Hepburn). Her last humanitarian mission for UNICEF was to Somalia in the summer of 1992. She was reported to have begun feeling stomach pains towards the end of the trip, which sadly turned out to be cancer.

7. She returned to work nine months after giving birth to her son Sean H. Ferrer in order to begin filming Breakfast at Tiffany's.

8. Suffered from hydrophobia, a condition that severely hampered some of her scenes in Two for the Road. When a shot called for co-star Albert Finney to throw her into a swimming pool, divers were placed on standby (off camera) just to placate the actress after it was learned that she had a morbid fear of water.

9. Broke her back during filming of a horse-riding scene in The Unforgiven.

10. Her famous "little black dress" from Breakfast At Tiffany's, designed by Hubert de Givency, was sold at a Christie's auction for approximately $920,000 in December of 2006.

11. She told People magazine that she was very self-conscious about her size 10 feet.

12. She was trained as a dental assistant before making it big.

13. Audrey felt that she was miscast as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, although it was one of her most popular roles. 

Some of my personal Audrey collection:

My living room wall- or as I call it, my "Audrey wall". 

 

My Audrey purses

 

The Audrey coasters my Bubba and his family gave me for Christmas! And one of my Audrey books. I have a ton of Audrey books!

If you haven't already, I recommend that you stop by For the Love of Blogs. They are all simply wonderful over there. You can discover new blogs and make new friends along the way! I've made some wonderful blogging (and Twitter) friends from there. 

Since the temperature has dropped 18 degrees since I first woke up this morning, I think my drink of the day is going to be hot chocolate. Brr!!

Have a beautiful day!  XOXO!

 

Wednesday Ramblings...

Thank you to everyone who sent me sweet messages/tweets after my rough day yesterday. I am doing  much better today!  XOXO!

I wanted to start my post today by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my BFF Mandy! We have been friends for almost 23 years (I still can't believe it's been that long). I was going through a box of  crap junk stuff not too long ago and found all the letters she wrote me in college. Oh yes, real letters. I moved away to go to college so we went from being able to see/talk to each other every day to maybe seeing each other a few times a semester. My freshman year and part of my sophomore year we rotated weeks writing to each other. She would write me one week, and I would call her when I got the letter, and vice-versa. This was back before email was so "popular" (oh yes, I'm that old!) ;) I'm so glad we were able to do that. I loved going back and re-reading some of the stuff we had talked about WAY BACK then (oh the things that seem so "important" to you at 18- **sigh**). I was able to see her last weekend when I went to her baby shower. Since we don't live close to each other anymore, we only see each other a few times a year. But, it seems whenever we get together, it's like no time has passed between our visits. We have SO many memories together, and I'm looking forward to many more! Happy birthday Mandy- Love you! R.E.W.R. (she will be the only person who understands that!) :)

Halloween 1991- our third Halloween to go trick or treating together

 

At her wedding in 2004

 

A few years ago in Austin

 

At her baby shower. Yes, I posted this one Monday too. :)

Okay, moving on for now. So, after forgetting the earphones to my iPod at work yesterday, I had to listen to a CD driving to work today. I know, how "caveman-ish" of me to actually listen to a CD- who does that anymore? ;) I honestly don't keep many in my car, but I found one of my CD books in the backseat. I have no clue how long it's been there because I honestly didn't even know I had it, I just happened to find it  (which is a miracle in itself since my truck is so messy- getting off track, that is a story for another day). So, after flipping through a few pages I found my Matchbox 20 Yourself or Someone Like You CD. I forgot how good that CD was! It took me WAY BACK (it came out either my senior year of high school or my freshman year of college). I forgot that I pretty much like all the songs on it.

 I had to share a few videos from Matchbox 20. Man, I LOVE Rob Thomas' voice!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, this last song isn't from their first album, but I really like it! :)

Hope everyone has a great day. Hugs go out to my friends on Twitter who have been posting about having a bad day. :( I hope it gets better for you! And for all of you baseball fans out there, 72 days and counting until Opening Day! ;) **happy dance**

If you need a smile, I hope this picture helps! XOXO!

One of those days...

It's just been one of those days. And from what I'm reading on Twitter and other blogs, it seems that I'm not alone in having an "off" day (or week in some cases). So, instead of great words of wisdom from Rachel, I leave you with this today:

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!

Yay for Friday!

TGIF!!!










1. What movie could you watch over and over and not get tired of?

Mary Poppins. It was my favorite movie when I was four and it's my favorite movie 28 years later. :) Dick Van Dyke rules!

2. What's your biggest pet peeve right now?

People who are constantly saying, "it's not my job, I shouldn't have to do that." Tough. We all have to do stuff that's not in our "job description". Can you tell it's been one of those weeks at work?

3. If you had to describe your best friend in five words or less, what would you say?

Always there for me, ALWAYS. (I know this probably isn't what the question meant, but I wanted to say it!) :)

4. If you did not have to worry about money or go to school what would you do for a living?

I'm still holding on to the dream that I'll be a writer one day (I mean, it's why I went to college). But, if I had to pick another one, I really would like to do philanthropy work. I was on the Philanthropy committee at my old job and really enjoyed it. I would love to be able to help out organizations and communities. I love doing stuff like that. 

5. What is your one splurge item, that you will always buy, no matter what the cost?

A pedicure. Sometimes a girl just wants to be pampered!

 

I love pedicures. Please excuse the paleness of my legs. I need some sun!

I have so many new fab friends- check out my sidebar. Go make a new friend or two. They are all lovely!

Happy weekend sweet friends! It's my flex day, so I'm off work at 11:30. I'm going out of town this weekend, looking forward to seeing some friends I haven't seen in a while!! XOXO!!

Thursday Thirteen

For my Thursday 13 I thought I would list 13 books that I enjoyed as a child/young adult (I've been reading my whole life- yes you can call me a book nerd). I thought that my sweet followers who have kids might be interested in some of these. These books have an age range from 3 to 13ish.

1. The Monster At the End of This Book by Jon Stone. How can you go wrong with a book by Sesame Street? I LOVED this book when I was little. My dad would read it to me all the time! I think a sequel was made years later with Elmo. But the original one is the best! :)

 

2.  I'm My Mommy/I'm My Daddy by Daniel Wilcox. This is another one my parents would read to me all the time. The book is two stories that explore the trials, tribulations, and fun of being a parent from the point of view of a mother and father.

3.  The Berenstain Bears collection by Stan and Jan Berenstain. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these books (yes, present tense. I still read these today if I see a copy. You are never too old for them). The authors' son has taken over writing them and is still publishing new ones today. I bought my nephews "C" and "E" a few new ones last year.

 

This is the first one I remember reading. Gee, I wonder why?? ;)

4. Dr. Seuss collection by Theodor Seuss Geisel, AKA Dr Seuss. I don't think I can name a favorite, there are so many. A few of my top picks would be And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry St., The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and Hop on Pop.

5. Richard Scarry collection by Richard Scarry. I was just talking about his books the other day with someone. They are awesome. 

6. Bony Legs by Joanna Cole. Okay, the first friend to make a joke about me and this book gets hurt! ;) I actually have this book at my apartment. I found it going through some boxes at my folks' house a while back. Description: A Russian tale about good-hearted Sasha, who enters a witch's house that's perched on chicken legs.

7. The Magic Anatomy Book by Carol Donner. I remember my 4th grade teacher reading this book to us in class. It's kinda like The Fantastic Voyage for kids.

8. Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. My cousin had all of these books when we were younger. I noticed the last time I was at her house that her daughter now has these books! ;)

9. All Books by Judy Blume. I read OH SO MANY of her books. Freckle Juice, Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing, Super Fudge, Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret?, Just As Long As We're Together, Forever..the list goes on and on

10. All Books by Beverly Cleary.  The Ramona series, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, Dear Mr. Henshaw...I can so see me re-reading these books now. Memories!

11. The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene. I remember my church library had a bunch of these books that I would constantly be borrowing. This was an early start to my love of mystery novels!

 12. Sweet Valley Twins/Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal. These books follow the adventures of identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. The "Twins" series takes place when the girls are in junior high. Obviously the "High" series takes place in high school. Oddly enough, the Sweet Valley High series came first, the author did a "prequel" spin-off later. I so would re-read these books!! :)

13. The Babysitter's Club by Ann M. Martin. This series follows the adventures of group of junior high girls and their babysitting club. I remember first reading these books in 1986 when I was 8 years old. The girls were 13 and in the 8th grade. I thought they were "so old". The last book in the series came out when I was in college. They were still 13. Poor girls never grew up! Another great series I would totally re-read. I had all of them but an unfortunate incident in a storage unit caused the box they were in to get  totally ruined. If anyone sees them on eBay, let me know! ;) They are re-releasing the books, but I hear they are making "modernization" updates. That's sad. Leave them the way there were written!!

Okay, I know I already listed 13, but this was a last minute one I thought of. Think of it as a Thursday 13 plus one! ;)

 The Sunfire series by various authors. One of my best friends had these books and I remember borrowing them to read all the time. The Sunfire books contained two themes: history and romance. Each book featured a teenage girl who experienced a particular period or event in American history. At the same time, with very few exceptions, the girl was torn between two potential lovers. The girl was typically ahead of her time in ideas and actions and the suitor she almost always chose was the one who approved of or accepted her actions. 

For more Thursday 13 blogs, go here.

Happy Thursday!! It's almost the weekend!!

:)