Happy 100th Post!

I must tell you, when I searched Google Image Search as "100th post," I got some disturbing and weird pictures. Such as, a pile of wood, kids smiling with cupcakes in the center of the table fashioned to shape 100 (I really wanted that one but it wouldn't load on here), and a dog (how did that end up in the results?). Mostly, I just wanted to say, Happy 100th Post. It's been a fun 100 entries. I also hope you've had a great Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. I hope to keep you just as entertained in 2009 with pictures of my pug, my pug, my life, and more of my pug.

P.S. I'm having issues loading pictures from my iPhone to the blog. The people from the app say they will have an update to fix this ASAP, but it has been a week now, so I hope it will come soon.

iPhone Diaries No. 9

This is my mom's friend Amy's cat, Spanky. He is by far the largest cat I have ever seen. This picture doesn't even do him justice.
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 8

There is this neighborhood in town that always seems to go all out for Christmas. Well... a few of the houses atleast. This one is by far the most outrageous one. Another down the street has lights that are synched with music that is broadcasted over their own radio frequency. Pretty cool, right?
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 7

My mom was looking for a recipe this morning and this one just stuck out. Maybe next time my mom won't abbreviate...
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 6

Ivy got Spike a new outfit for Spike for Christmas- a Christmas hoodie! We've had a good laugh about it because he has the big pocket on his back. Not only that, but it just so happens to be rhinestone encrusted. However, Spike seems to like it just the same.
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 5

I am sorry... but there is just something wrong about taking "Sex and the City" and making it into a kids puzzle. My mom and I saw this at Dollar Tree (maybe that's how that got there??) and gawked. Kids these days...
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 4

For Spike, life is good.
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 3

Mary Grace likes to be silly at the Drip. On Saturday when we were working together she put the stickers that are SUPPOSED to go on lids on her teeth and greeted a customer. He was a little shocked. What am I going to do with this girl?
Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries No. 2

Today, MG and I decided to do a little Christmas shopping... not that great of an idea. I told MG to show me "how she felt about the traffic." This is the reaction I got.

Posted with LifeCast

iPhone Diaries, No. 1

As I have gotten home for break, I've realized that it's really hard to post because I an not on my computer nearly as much as at school. So... I've decided to start something on the blog called the "iPhone Diaries."

I take pictures on my iPhone and I will post them. I may do regular blogs here and there, but this is going to be new and different. We'll see!

Posted with LifeCast

Christmas Parade / Spike Show

I've decided we might as well just name this post the Spike Show. I just downloaded about 55 pictures off of my camera and I think 47 had Spike somewhere in the picture... geez.

Anyways. This past weekend our family went to the the Madison Christmas Parade, which was a lot of fun. (Ok, this is going to sound long) My mom's friend's aunt's house is one house away from the parade route, so we went to her house and camped out in the front lawn for the parade.

Spike "decided" to come. He really was the best pet ever at the parade.

See! He and Ivy were on the opposite of the street and I snuck this picture of them while he wasn't looking (like he would have cared if he had seen me).

The Madison Central band...

I think these girls were called the Pink Flamingoes...

And, of course, SANTA! Woo hoo! Yay Santa!

This week is my finals week. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, you know why.

I know, I know. You are wondering what a gecko, my pug, and crab legs have to do with Thanksgiving, right? Well, they do. I promise.

See that gecko? That is my aunt, Linda's, gecko, Toby. We had lots of fun with him.

See those crab legs? That's what MG ate at Joe's Crabshack on Black Friday.

See that pug? Well, he's just cute. As you can tell by the scarf, he likes to accessorize.

I am here at my aunt Linda's house in Memphis. It's become a family tradition of sorts to go to her house, but the bigger tradition involves David Letterman. If you have ever watched his late night show on Thanksgiving, you'll know that he guesses each year what pies his mom has cooked. There normally are about two or three and usually include a weird pie (rhubarb, blackberry- ones you wouldn't see in the South). So, for almost ten years now, it has become a tradition for our family to each guess pies and see who can get the closest. We shall see!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a bit of a fall yesterday. Ok, flat out fell face down. Seriously, I am one of the clumsiest people on the planet and in high school I feel down the stairs at home on a regular basis. However, those stairs were carpeted. Yesterday, I wasn't so lucky.

(Sigh) I was helping my friend Erin move some of her stuff from her dorm because she is moving into the dorm where our friend Deidre and I live. Well, her hall has very steep front steps (it's one of the original buildings on campus) and somehow I misjudged the steps and fell a good 3 to 5 feet to the sidewalk. Thank goodness the plastic bin I was carrying broke my fall, because I probably would be scheduling some sort of rhinoplasty right now if it hadn't been there.

But, now I have the nastiest bruises I have ever seen on my arms and legs. It's quite embarassing. I was thinking of taking a picture and posting it but I wasn't sure the faint of heart wanted to see such ugliness.

So, watch out where you are going. It's a dangerous world out there.

I am absolutely in love with these glasses from Etsy. If I was crafty enough, I'd be making some right now. Alas, I don't have a glass cutter and I certainly don't have the tools to fire polish the ends. (Sigh)

Happy Early Birthday Ashley!

MOM...

I found this bag while shopping today and I thought of my little sister Ivy. Come to think of it, this probably could go for my middle sister, MG, too. Hmm...

The Farmer's Market and THOSE Tamales

This year, I have started going to the Farmer's Market downtown on Thursday evenings. I love the atmosphere, the free samples, and all of the good food and friends there. However, there was one booth I never dared to try- the tamale booth.

The tamale booth is a crux of the farmer's market. EVERYONE gets the tamales. Behind a plain plastic table loaded with arsenals of tamales (ok, huge industrial size pots), is a spicy Latina woman saying, "Hey mama, come get some tamales! Try the free salsa! Hey papa! I know you want to try too." However, I have been too scared to buy any. Somehow, between the big pots, "mama," and the cakes (Oh, those cakes, I'll get to that later) I have been too intimidated. Today, I decided to try it.

My, oh, my. I've converted. I'll always buy her pork tamales as long as I shop at the Downtown Hattiesburg Farmer's Market. They are perfect!

After closer examination of this picture, it looks somewhat like what I picture a huge joint looking like. NOTE: THIS IS NOT MAR-I-JU-ANA.*

At her table you can choose between pork (what I got), chicken, vegetable, and cheese. I have to say, I think I am going to stick with the pork.

Oh, did I mention that the tamales are only $2.50 each? Sold!

Now, what I think I might conquer next week is her CAKE. I can't even accurate describe to you how huge her cakes are. She makes these huge cakes the size of an 18-wheeler tire (no lie) and sells this by the slice. She is known for her almond cake but she also has (as I am told but other vendors) an awesome chocolate and coconut cake. I will have to see about that.

I also got a loaf of carrot blueberry bread. Yum! Last week I bought muffins from this table that were orange, carrot, and blueberry that were really very good. I'm not a huge citrus fan so I think this might be even better! I'll let you guys know.

And last but not least, I got some goobers.

I do love some boiled peanuts. Though I love my tamales and bread, boiled peanuts have a special place in my heart.

Have a great end to the week and visit your local farmer's market this weekend!

*Maybe as addictive.

Happy 18th Birthday big... err... little sister!

Hallo-Happy-Ween-Birthday Weekend

I hope you guys had a happy Halloween this weekend! I had a great weekend, which happened to also be my sister, MG's, birthday (well.... tomorrow). I thought it would be fun to give her some mustaches, since she always seems to be preoccupied with "my mustache" (she swears I have a moustache and makes fun of me like the mean sister she is... just kidding!). So, I gave her these from Etsy...

And this one from a costume shop in Hattiesburg...

Needless to say, it was a big hit. Spike, on the other hand, was Count Pug-ula for a good minute in a half. The dog was never really good at costumes anyway. Don't get me wrong, Spike LOVES thinking about wearing costumes, but he gets so darn excited he ends up destroying his "clothes." He also had a hot dog outfit that was just too big for him and wouldn't stay on. Oh well, I guess dogs aren't meant to wear clothes...

BUT, MG thought it would be a good idea for her to wear it since Spike wasn't using it. We sat out on the front porch to give candy to the (very few) kids who came up our street. Our neighborhood offered a hayride around the whole neighborhood and when it was time, they came to our street. Once kids had gotten their candy and were on the hayride circling our cul-de-sac to go down the street, some kids yelled "Look it's the hot dog!" We laughed.

(Here is MG waving at the people on the hayride)

On Saturday we had a bonfire at Candy's house in celebration of MG's birthday. This is Lucy (on right with her friend, Rachel), my godsister. I know, godsister doesn't sound real to you but it is. My mom is her godmother so she is my godsister, Chris (her brother) is my godbrother, Candy is my godmother, and Bill is my godfather. Anyways, Lucy reads my blog and requested it be put on the blog, so here it is. Hello Lucy!

We brought tons of goodies that we had found that day. There was a fun crafts festival/show at the Cultural Center where we got BLT dip mix (YUMMMMM) and the Belhaven Market where we got shrimp dip (YUMMMMMMMMMM). We also had hummus, fruit, apples, chicken and corn chower, baked apple dessert... you get the picture.

Oh, and the quinessential black olive.

I like to think that these plates were in honor of MG and her feather hairclips she is making. How cute are these plates? (Don't answer, it's sad enough that I take pictures of the appetizer plates)

(Singing) We didn't start the fire, it's been burning since the world's been turning. We didn't start the fire...

Have a great week!

Puh-n-kins

I was on Etsy's "Storque" section today and I had a good laugh with this picture. There is a guy, Tom Nardone, who does these extreme pumpkin carvings, like the one above. You are ready more about about it (and do one for yourself) here.

Not MY School

I got wind of this story and was really shocked. Really, at MY school? How interesting...

More later!

ArtWalk and mo'

I love Hattiesburg when the town comes out together and celebrates with art, food, and music. You'd be surprised how much this actually happens. With the Historic Downtown Hattiesburg Association, there is definitely a sense of revitalization. Today was the Fall ArtWalk downtown- lots of fun! My friend Kaycie and I decided to go and check it out. Both of us being from Jackson, we knew what Fondren ArtMix was like and hoped it would be like that.

Around the different restaurants and shops (Southbound Bagel in this picture) there was art displayed with food and good music. The sign next to this band/duo/whatever said "Grateful Dead Cover Band," but I don't think I heard a single Grateful Dead song. He was really good though.
This little kid kept running away from his mom the whole time and just wanted to touch the drum. I am surpised he didn't think it was too loud, because it was loud even from where we were sitting. We got lots of laughs out of this kid.

Here's Kaycie enjoying listening to the guy sing.

After the ArtWalk, I went over to Claire's and I made dinner. We decided to go light because Claire and I had decided earlier in the week we wanted to go have dessert fondue at this relatively new restaurant called Stoney's. It's actually the place where Claire and her fiance John ate on the night they got engaged. So, I cooked and then we headed off to Stoney's.

Sorry this is such a horrible picture. The place was dark and I was obviously a little more concerned about my fondue. Every dessert fondue comes with bananas, strawberries, marshmallows, a brownie, and a slice of cheesecake. Yum! You can choose from milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. We chose white chocolate. It was amazing. Plus, it's on $15 for two people, which was not bad at all.

I hope you guys had a fabulous weekend as well (thus far)!

Hello loyal friends! It's been a while, eh? I've had fall break, camping, and other fun things going on. Here are some pictures to get you through...

Our family went camping at Clarkco State Park. The weather was perfect! It was fun as always, even though we really missed Ashley and Bryan not being there!

Mr. Pepper had his one-year-old birthday party. He had a "cake" which he shared with George and Spike. Let's just say that this cat is very very very well taken care of.

Yesterday my friends Erin and Deidre and I went downtown to the train depot to see the art exhibit "Breaking the Veils." I didn't have high hopes for it (It was in a train depot... how amazing was it going to be?) but I was so shocked and surprised.

For some reason, this was my favorite piece. It looked a lot like a man with a bow tie. I thought it was really cool.

This is what the inside of the train depot looks like. Are you as amazed as I am? I've never seen such a nice train depot (I say this like I am a train depot expert). All of the works were so cool.

I know it's been a while and I hope to do more soon!

Parent Fashion Weekend

Oh what a good weekend I just had.
I went back home this weekend to get a haircut, go to the fair, and other various things. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend (coined "Parent Fashion Weekend"-more on that later).

My mom and I went to the fair. I believe this is the first time in history that my mom and I went by ourselves. Since we don't ride the rides, we just ate and looked at the car show and animals. They had some of the most interesting car/vehicles, like this old scooter (I believe it is a Vespa). look at how the pedals are still on the floor board and not built into the handles.

The animals were cute as well. However, right next to the piglets there was this station that had a cow with all of the cuts of meat on it and you could press buttons and that area/cut of meat would light up. I was not impressed.

Ah, Parent Fashion Weekend. My dad has come up with "projects" for him (and subsequently, us) to do on the weekends. Apparently, my dad had said he was going to clean out his closet this weekend. By the time Saturday rolled around, he wasn't so keen on doing so.

After coercing him into cleaning out his closet, my sister and I also convinced my mom to do it to. Thus, it became "Parent Fashion Weekend." It was a hard and long fight on some pieces for some of us coughmomcough. There are so many articles of clothing on the dining room table now.

So as my mom and dad took things out of the closet, my sister, MG, and I said "yes" or "no."
It was funny, that's for sure.

More later!