what i'm lovin' wednesday!

I know, I know- I've been a little MIA lately. Of course, I have to lay the blame at the feet of two people:

     #1- This trainwreck

Jodi Arias

I spend basically every free second I have at work checking the live blog for this trial. Seriously, it's an obsession, a sickness, and I can't stop. I was the same with Casey Anthony. I'm sure I'll be the same when the Aurora psycho goes on trial too. If I had been old enough to understand/care during the OJ trial, there's no doubt I would have been addicted to that as well. When I get sucked in and am convinced someone is guilty/deserves justice, I follow the trial with the same passion that I watch, for instance, the Iron Bowl. For all you non-Bammers and non-Barners, that's an in-state college football rivalry, and I am fiercely passionate about the outcome of the game. Likewise, I'm absorbed by every detail of this trial and find myself subconciously "cheering" whenever the prosecutor makes a slam-dunk in court. This trial has read like some sort of trashy romance/criminal suspense novel. The kind you can't put down even though you're embarrassed to admit it. Sex, lies, deceit, cheating, religious scandal, murder, blood... you name it, this trial has it. It's riveting to watch, and hopefully when it is over, I'll have a little more time on my hands.

     #2- Matthew Crawley

So now that you know how I spend every free second at work, it's only fair to tell you how I've been spending every free second outside of work. That's right folks- I'm 100% on the Downton Abbey bandwagon. I kept hearing so many good things about it that I just had to give it a shot. I watched an episode or two on Netflix a couple of months ago, but got busy and never got back to it. A few weeks ago, a friend loaned me Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, and since then I've been living on a British rollercoaster of love, war, and social class division. LOVE IT. The hype is for real y'all. I'm almost done with Season 2, and I dare say I'm a little nervous to see Season 3 after hearing so much recently about the finale. DON'T TELL ME if you have seen it! I've heard so many people discussing it that it's been almost impossible to avoid a major spoiler. But so far, I've successfully managed to stay in the dark until I watch.

So there you have it, my two very time-consuming guilty pleasures of the moment. And how appropriate that I shared this secret for "What I'm Loving Wednesday" because I'm most certainly loving the courtroom dramatics of the Arias trial and the "Will they or won't they?" saga between Mary and Matthew on Downton.

Here's a VERY brief recap of some of the things we've been up to since my last post:

Valentine's Day

Pink Sugar Cookies

Red Velvet Milky Way Cookies

Whole morning at the spa courtesy of Mr. M

Birthday Celebrations

Group birthday celebration at Cocina for our friend Jesse

Sweet Tate's 2nd Birthday Monster Party

Nashville Trip

Paradise Park- our fave

Love some Mal

Traditional group guitar pic!

And last but not least, I leave you with some of my favorite Oscar looks (via):

Charlize

My absolute favorite- Naomi

Jennifer

Cutest couple - the Tatums

Royal Reese

Jessica

Amy

miscellaneous monday

Hola. Monday morning following the Super Bowl is pretty rough as is, but add a quick Mardi Gras trip into the equation...AND plug in several coworkers being out "sick"... and well, you've got yourself the perfect storm of a Monday. The only thing keeping me going (besides multiple cups of coffee):

Daydreaming that I can someday be THIS awesome.

via

Bey pretty much rocked it out last night, dontya agree? Having no emotional connection to either team, she was pretty much the highlight of my night. Oh, and THIS and THIS. If that first link didn't make you tear up just a little, I'm gonna need to check your pulse. I also thought that Miz Alicia Keys did a very moving National Anthem prior to the game. And those Sandy Hook kids? So sweet. Aside from that, I wasn't very invested in the game. On one hand I was pulling for some of my Bama boys on the Ravens' roster, but on the other hand I was pulling against the recently-over-killed Ray Lewis. Very internally conflicting. Anyway, I'm glad that thanks to the blackout, it turned out to at least be a very entertaining game.

Enough about the Super Bowl, here's a few miscellaeous pictures from our weekend in Mobile. So much fun!

Brother <3>





My 3 favorite guys

Lawbreakers

Mayfields throws ice cream sandwiches instead of beads. Clearly my favorite float.

Even Phil from Duck Dynasty was feeling the Mardi Gras spirit

These Mardi Gras virigins sure had a good time!

Me and Becky

Mama

A sure-fire way to get pelted with throws

Ball blurriness

Hope you all had a great weekend, Super Bowl, etc!

christmas in the city: day four

Here it is folks- the final post on our December NYC trip. All of this re-living the fun has only made me want to go back. Who's with me??
Sadly, my picture taking dwindled as the days went on, so I have very few pictures from our last day. So here it goes, the final recap. 

Saturday, December 8

• We woke up Saturday morning, got ready, and headed to Paradou for "drunk brunch". What is drunk brunch you might ask? Apparently this is the term for the ever-popular meal between breakfast and lunch in which various NYC restaurants serve you all the champagne cocktails you can drink as you eat. SO MUCH FUN! And the food was delicious. This was easily the guys' favorite part of the trip.

Paradou

• Since Saturday was our last full day in the city, we did not really make out an agenda for this day and decided to play it by ear. As we were leaving brunch, we noticed a cool little bar down the street called the Brass Monkey. Because there's a bar near our hometown with the same name, we decided we had to check it out. We had some fun conversation with a few locals in here and enjoyed our leisurely stay.

The Monkey

• After spending the day out and about we headed to the hotel to freshen up. Then it was off to Eatlay. I could have wandered around this food hall forever. So many interesting places! We got a table at Birreria to enjoy some craft beers and a cheese plate. I loved the atmosphere here!

• Finally it was off to our dinner reservation at Gramercy Tavern. This restaurant was gorgeous and the food was mouth-watering- the perfect way to end our trip! We somehow discovered that our server was originally from Alabama, and when she found out that we were too, she brought out her manager who was also an Alabama native. Before leaving for New York, he had worked at some of my favorite Birmingham restaurants- Highlands Bar & Grill and Hot & Hot Fish Club. Small world. The hometown connection made for a very fun meal! And as I said before, the food was out of this world good!

Yes, I'm the crazy person who takes a picture of the resaurant's front door. It was so beautiful!

The trip was truly a whirlwind of good food, good friends, and great memories! Sunday we headed back to Alabama thoroughly satisfied and thoroughly exhausted. I already can't wait to go back!