Pedo Tacky Christmas Party at Sarah and Josh's House

This weekend we had a Pedo Tacky Christmas Party at Sarah and Josh's house.  We went to lots of thrift stores to perfect our look, but it all paid off in the end!  Sarah and Josh had a make your own pizza station for dinner.  Such a cute idea.  They had the crust and all the toppings laid out for everyone to put together their own pizza!

Everyone represented with some killer tacky Christmas outifts.  Pretty impressive:

Karen and Tyler in killer matching pleated green pants and sweaters

Brian enjoying some yummy pizza

Scott, Lauren and Leah

Summer and Clark in Killer Plaid 

Brian and I Sporting some fabulous finds

Sarah, Summer, and I

The Kunkels

Some Serious Studs

Tyler, Karen, and baby Katelynn

We finished up the evening with some yummy cakeballs that Summer made, and a Dirty Santa/White/Elephant/Chinese Auction/Whatever you Want to Call It Gift Exchange.  It was a fun night with fun people!!



Thanksgiving in Clarksville

This year, we spent Thanksgiving in Clarksville with Brian's family!  We had a nice long weekend break from Memphis, so we loaded the doggies up in the car and headed to Clarksville.  We had a great time getting together with Brian's mom, dad, sister and her husband, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin for a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.  Coco and Ayla had fun because Brian's parents' dog Maggie and sister's dogs Alley and BitBit were all in there for the occasion.  We were stuffed by the end of it.  We even got a little snow!  And we went to the Clarksville TJMaxx, which always has great stuff!  Brian's sister is due three weeks before me with her first baby too, so that was fun to get together and talk about babies on the way!

Brian and his Granny

Yummy Thanksgiving Dinner

Brian and Sandra

Brian and a few Doggy Admirers

 

Coco and Ayla enjoying in the dusting of snow

Music Monday: Rogue Wave- Eyes

This is a song I just heard in an LG commercial.  I went on a search for it, and it was a little hard to find.  I think its been in some tv shows lately too.  Its called Eyes by Rogue Wave:

Memphis Eats: Downtown Dining Week

Since we left Memphis, they have started an annual Downtown Dining Week. 

Its pretty cool.  All the good downtown restaurants feature three course meals for $20.10 (I think this year because its 2010).  Monday night, Sarah, Josh, Brian, and I ate at Itta Bena that I've mentioned in an earlier post.  Cool atmosphere, delicious food, right on Beale Street above BB King's.  Its a good place to eat if you're visiting Memphis.  I had the shrimp and grits which were pretty good.  Brian had the ribeye which he thought was good but a little small.  We started out with the She Crab Soup which was delicious.  We all had the brownie with ice cream for dessert and it was yummy.

On Thursday, Jennifer and I had a girls night at Hunt Phelan.  Hunt Phelan is a restored 1828 antebellum mansion at the end of Beale Street.  It has a really nice restaurant, an inn, and apartments.  It is a kind of hidden little gem in downtown Memphis, and makes a nice date night.  When its not Downtown Dining Week, they usually have coupons on Restaurant.com so you can still get a pretty good deal.  Anyway Jenn and I started out with the salad, then she had the shrimp and grits and I had the short ribs.  Jenn said the shrimp and grits were yummy.  The short ribs were AMAZING.  The waiter said that the slow cook them all day.  It was like a super flavorful pot roast that melted in your mouth.  So, so tender.  I want to go back and have it again.  For dessert, I had the chocolate toffee tart and Jenn had the white chocolate bread pudding.  Both were good, but I liked her bread pudding the best! 

Tonight we're heading to Chez Phillipe with Summer, Clark, Josh, and Sarah for dinner so can't wait to see how that is.  So far Downtown Dining Week has turned out to be great deals and delicious food.  Can't wait until next year!

The Last Few Weeks

I have been slacking on the blogging lately, but here's a catchup. Weekend before last, Chad and Emily came into town for a visit from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Chad is Brian's friend from college and roommate during dental school. While Brian was in dental school in Memphis, Chad was in law school so they were roommates along with JJ. Chad married Emily right at the end of living in Memphis, so Emily and I have gotten to hang out more since we moved from Memphis than we did when we lived here in dental school! They are sooo much fun and we had a great weekend. We had a yummy dinner at Itta Bena, which is a restaurant above BB Kings on Beale Street. It has a great atmosphere and delicious food. Its kind of hidden up a stairway behind BB Kings and I don't think it even has a sign or anything. The inside is filled with old black and white photos and the windows look out to Beale Street. On Saturday, we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy snuggies because it was FREEZING and we were going to the UT Memphis game that night at 7. Best purchase ever! We went to the game and were nice and warm. The only (almost) Snuggie disaster occured when Emily and I went to the restroom and she had her Snuggie hanging over the bathroom door. Someone walked along and GRABBED her Snuggie!! Luckily a fellow Snuggie enthusiast was in line waiting for a stall and yelled at the girl "Drop that snuggie! Its not yours!" She saved the day and Emily's Snuggie and all was well in Snuggieland. Here are some pics from the game...although it wasn't much of a game because Tennessee stomped on Memphis.

Good song

Ok I liked this song when Bryan Adams sang it.  Its very 80s and 90s mixtape-ish, but I still love it.  I admit it.  I could listen to it over and over.  I'm not ashamed. 



And then I was watching The Good Wife and they had a cover by Brandi Carlile and it is super too.  So here you go.  No shame.  It just makes you feel good to listen to it.  This video not so much.

Apple Dip

I should have taken pictures of this, but I got this recipe from Lindsey Brown, who I worked with in New Orleans last year and it is yummy.  You take two bars of softened cream cheese, 1 container of marshmallow cream, and 1 cup of brown sugar and mix it together until smooth.  Top it with caramel, then sprinkle with Betty Crocker Parlor Perfect Peanut Parfait ice cream topping if you can find it, or nuts. 

Slice up your apple into small slices and serve.  It is very delicious and perfect for Fall!

Pedo Halloween Pumpkin Carving/Football Watching Party at Our House

This weekend we had the pedo people over for some pumpkin carving, meat smoking, and football watching.  It was a nice, long day of good times!

A Few of my Favorite Websites...

I have kind of become addicted to some of these websites lately, so I'll share them.  Most of them you have probably heard of, but if not they're ones I check every day.  Post Secret is this website that people can mail in any kind of confession or truth about themselves that they want, anonymously, on a postcard.  Its kind of weird but interesting:

Some of the postcards are really funny and light, and others are intense.  Its just interesting.

Now on to shopping!  I have sort of become addicted to Groupon and Living Social.  These guys offer a deal each day.  There is an IPhone app or you can go to the website.  Its everything from museum admissions to hair salons to movie tickets to restaurants.  You kind of never know what you're going to get.  Its a different coupon for each city, and its good to check the cities other than the one you live in, because sometimes the coupons work anywhere.  Yesterday on Groupon for Memphis was a $75 worth of services for $35 at the place I get my hair cut so I got that!  You just sign up with your email address.  I LOVE coupons so I love these websites!

The other two websites that I love that I have to give Summer Tyson credit for are Gilt and Jetsetter.  They are owned by the same people, but Gilt is clothes and home and Jetsetter is travel.  I haven't bought anything through these yet, but they are fancy schmancy and fun just to look at.  I'll buy something soon I'm sure.  Gilt has sort of like Sample Sales from Citizens of Humanity and Kate Spade and some fancy designer stuff that is still too expensive even at 60 or 70 percent of the cost, but fun to look at!  Jetsetter has amazing five star resorts all over the US and the world for usually about half off the regular nightly rate.  The funny thing about these websites is that you sign up, then they make you wait until they "have room for you to join", then you get an e-mail invite a few days later inviting you to join.  So far no one I know has been turned down yet!  Not sure what's up with that, but it is fun to window shop on these websites and I'm sure I'll buy something soon! Oh and if you click on the Jetsetter link above and sign up this week you get a $25 credit toward a purchase.

Last but not least is Restaurant.com.  Here you can buy gift certificates to restaurants at a discounted rate.  There are some important things to know about it before you buy, but still a really good deal.  Enter in your zip code and go through the list and pick out restaurants, then read the rules for the gift certificate.  Usually its a $25 gift certificate for $15.  The important part to know is usually you have to spend a minimum of $35 and tip on the original total.  So just make sure you buy the gift certificates with that in mind.  BUT the MOST IMPORTANT part is that when you check out, they always have a coupon code to enter to get you anything from 60%-90% off and this is when it becomes a really good deal.  You can either google "Restaurant.com coupon code" at the time you are buying it, and one of the coupon code websites like RetailMeNot will have the code for that time, or if you sign up on the restaurant.com website, they will send you e-mails with the coupon codes every week.  So with the codes, the $25 gift certificate ends up being around $2.  Hard to believe I know, but we use it all the time!! 

Back to RetailMeNot, any time I buy anything online I google the coupon code for whatever store it is.  You can usually find a coupon code for at least free shipping for most online stores.  Like if I am ordering something from JCrew, I google "JCrew Coupon code" before I check out and about 25% of the time I find something to save a little money.  RetailMeNot is a good place to look for coupon codes because they keep it very current and let people rank whether the code worked or not so you can see the percentage that the particular code worked for people.  Ok enough!  Enjoy!

Music Monday: Miranda Lambert- The House that Built Me

Well this is another one I've got to give Brian credit for.  He heard it on the radio and came home and downloaded it, and I love it.  The song is so good and her voice is awesome.  I'm not a huge country fan, but this is a good song.  So here you have it:

Smile for a Lifetime, Dinner with Sarah and Josh, Sunday Funday at Shelby Farms!

We had a fun non-traveling (almost) weekend in Memphis.  On Friday, we drove to Jonesboro to a fundraiser for Smile for a Lifetime at Dr. Burris' house.  It was a great chance to see some friends from dental school and get together for a great cause.  Their house is perfect for entertaining and we had a great time and ate some delicious food!  On the ride to Jonesboro the sunset was so pretty I had to take a picture. 

 Brian and Matt Carlisle

Andrea Carlisle and Emily Gairhan

Clark and Summer Tyson and me and Brian...I kind of match the table cloth

Jennifer Steele and Emily Gairhan

Summer, Kendall Jones and Me...I sort of look pregnant in this one:



On Saturday we watched football all day.  The Tennessee game was a nailbiter and if it wasn't for the UAB kicker missing 5 field goals we would have lost!  Then the Arkansas Alabama game was alllllmooostttt a great upset.  For dinner we went to Sweetgrass with Sarah and Josh and their fun friends from college, Scott and Courtney.  We passed the House of Mews and spent some time checking out all the crazy cats:

Sarah showed us some killer dance moves at Celtic Crossing: 


Today we took the doggies out to Shelby Farms off leash area for dogs and they had a blast.  Ayla is slowly getting better about being scared of big dogs.  Coco gets outside in the great wide open and turns into a wild woman!