I heart my Furbabies

I just got home from work and jumped on the computer to do a couple of work related things and my boy Harpo jumped into my lap for some loving. I decided to capture our time with this really awesome shot!

                                                                Another winner!

                                                                He's winking at you guys ;)

I decided I'd go find his sister, Artie.  She was sleeping on our bed. She was not happy with me for waking her up or really not into the photo shoot I wanted to do.

                                                    She wouldn't even look me in the eye.

                                She started to take a bath to ignore me some more...thanks Artie!

                                                           She looks like a little bear

                           Something disturbed her bath. It was her brother Harpo joining us.

She went right back to sleep.

 Harpo was just confused at why I was taking pics.  My brother and friend Brance think that the Dragon from "How to Train a Dragon" looks like Harpo....what do you think?

                                                             I love my furbabies!!

Yay for Friends!

The past two weekends have been just awesome.  Interaction w/ fellow Atlantans has been great : ).  On Friday my gal Brandy came to visit w/ her daughter Lynsey. 

Brandy and I have been friends since 1992 and have been inseparable since then. We got to visit and all went to lunch together.  Lynsey is almost 11 months old an incredibly adorable.

She is the happiest baby and I was so thankful for this special visit with them.

Friday night we had our dinner w/ church peeps and it was super yum.  The chili was seriously ah-mazing and the fellowship was great.  Saturday I taught and had a great trip to Trader Joes.  I finally got a cinnamon broom and let me tell you our place smells GREAT! Then I hosted a mini craft afternoon w/ a couple of friends.  Nothing like girl talk and crafts...lol.  Saturday evening we joined our friends Tim and Denise for dinner.  After dinner we hit this brewery with great views of the city.  I of course forgot to take pics of the views but I will say that it was a great reminder of another reason why I love living here.  I did manage to get pictures of everyone w/ their funky brews.

                                          Tim got a brew called Thor.  It made him strong : )

                                      Denise got a Manhattan w/ an aged, oak barrelled bourbon.

                                                    The hubs got an oktoberfest brew.

 This pic quality stinks but you can see that I got the shaft w/ my drink. Just kidding, I sampled a pumpkin beer that was awful and then got a saison beer that was great.

This was called 5 seasons brewery and I highly recommend.  Their menu looked great and it was all organic and local stuff (we had eaten at another good place called Six feet Under beforehand).

Sunday we had a great church service, I made us blueberry chicken sausage and french toast and then we did house stuff.  We finally chose some colors and we painted our guest bedroom a pretty, lavenderish gray.  I will take a picture soon.  I am really happy with the color, as is the hubs.

Today I got to meet up w/ another BFF, Andrea, for coffee and window shopping.  We had a great time visiting each other and catching up. We did deal w/ one of those pesky mall mart vendors...he was very rude but we didn't let it ruin our fun!!  Andrea and I are buds from college and she and her hubs and their adorable son live in the ATL area.  If you know something about ATL is that the 'burbs are huge.  We are about 40 min apart which is not terrible, but we definitely aren't able to get together as much as we like.  It was a great treat : ) An interesting fact about Andrea is she is a runner and doing a BIG one Thanksgiving...whoo hoo Andie!

                                     We probably should have taken this turned around...oh well!

Tonight I am heading to an Arbonne party.  Have you ever used their products?  I haven't but am interested to learn more.  Will let you know if I find any interesting products.  Hope you guys have a great week!

Friday Five-Actresses I adore

First I want to say that I am a BIG dork and just found my drafts that I had been loosing...there were 15 in there...ughh...I need a computer brain! Also, I started this on Friday and then ran out of time. So we will pretend I posted this on Friday : )

My Friday Five is in honor of living actresses I adore.  There are definitely others I like but these ladies were on my mind today.     

1. Kerry Butler-She is mostly a theatre actress but has had some guest appearances on tv shows such as 30 Rock and Lipstick Jungle.  I got the opportunity to see her in XANADU back in 2007 and she was phenomenal.  She has also been in Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, currently in Catch Me if You Can as well as lots of other shows.  Her hubby is a puppeteer for Sesame Street and they adopted a baby from Africa several years ago. She is UBER talented and just great to watch and listen to. 

2. Reese Witherspoon-I first fell in love with her back in the early ninties w/ such movies as The Man on the Moon and Wallflower.  She was just adorable and a great actress.  She quickly grew into one of my favorites with such classics like Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama.  Also, the fact that she did her own singing in Walk the Line definitely gained her some points in my book. I think the fact that she was a southern actress who seems pretty down to earth always made her endearing to me.  She also lived on Sullivans Island (Charleston) for a while so I think she has good taste in southern, coastal towns : ).

3. Keri Russell-Of course I loved her on Felicity and even the MMC, but the movie Waitress really sealed the deal for me.  She is brilliant in the movie! She also seems to not get wrapped up in the whole Hollywood thing. I can respect an actress who does her job and stays LOW on the drama!

                                                      

4. Bebe Neuwirth-Another multi-talented actress who I first knew as Frasier's ex-wife on the tv show Cheers.  Once I realized she did theatre I fell in love with her. She has also been in some of my favorites shows (Damn Yankees and Chicago).  She is an amazing dancer and a great singer.  You might recognize her from How to Lose a Guy in 10 days!

                                                       

5. Lauren Graham-I of course know her originally from Gilmore Girls but she is also on Parenthood and has done several movies.  Have you ever seen her in an interview? She is hilarious and quirky! I also give her props for doing theatre too, even though she got panned in Guys and Dolls I still support her.  I adore her and would love to work with her one day!

                                                 

Apple Betty recipe

On Sunday I showed you my plan for the day in pics.  The day was a success. 

The chili hit the spot.

 The cornbread wasn't bad either.

My crafts are turning out pretty cute (one is a semi bust but still working on it) but you have to wait for pics on those.  I couldn't decide what to watch out of my dvds so I decided a little Ally McBeal on netflix would fit into my plan perfectly.

The icing on the cake was dessert.  APPLE BETTY...my stepmom, Mama Deb, used to make this all of the time when I was a kid and I LOVED it.  I decided w/ our apples from our recent trip I would make some.  The recipe was easy and simple and the Drewster was pretty happy too.

Apple Betty
2 cups of apples chopped (I used 3 apples so probably close to 3 cups)
1/2 c. sugar (I used a 1/3 or 1/4 a cup, can't remember but it was just right for us)
1 tsp. cinnamon ( I threw a little extra in and added 1/2 a teaspoon of nutmeg)
3/4 c. quick cooking oatmeal
3/4 c. self-rising flour (I also used a healthier flour)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. melted butter

Mix apples, sugar and cinnamon and place in a greased 9x9 inch casserole dish.

 

 Combine oats, flour, brown sugar and butter.

                                     

  Crumble over apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Voila! A warm, easy success on a cold night.

 

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October flashback in pics

I never got a chance to blog about these little adventures and share many pics from October.

We headed up to the Apple Festival in Ellijay, GA in the middle of Oct with my brother and sis in law.  It was a great day adventure full of food, family, trashy crafts, some neat crafts and lots of apples. 
Our first stop at the festival, after the long trip in the car, were these classy bathrooms :(.  It was awful but when you gotta go, you gotta go.

After our pit stop we started looking at the sights. We were very disturbed by these dolls.

 And confused!!

The German dude was a bit random too.

I got oddly excited about the pony rides...I didn't go on one.

After we shopped a little, I got a neat pottery spoonrest for the kitchen and cool bird feeder for my mama Deb, we decided to eat some treats.

We waited in line for these apple dumplings and let me tell you is was SO good. In fact it was so good I couldn't take a picture...hubs and I inhaled ours.  We also got a bag of granny smith apples to take home. SO good!! After the Apple Festival we headed to Woodstock to have some tacos in honor of Drew's birthday.  I didn't get pics of those either but they were good.

Several days later we headed down to Decatur to celebrate Drew's birthday with our friends Denise and Tim. We went to a really cool restaurant called Leon's.  Jonah Hill happened to be dining there while we were. He totally wanted to be a part of our group : ). Denise wanted to surprise Drew with a dessert...she got him this AWESOME treat of bacon w/ a side of peanut butter. Sound weird? It was AMAZING. Seriously, the best bacon I've ever had and the PB was natural and yummo.

Drew's Birthday Bacon

He's so happy : )



                                                    Our buds, Tim and Denise

Several days later my mother in law was in town on her way to TN and she brought me a birthday pie.  It was SO good...we didn't have any candles.  Tea light anyone?

Not So Deep Thoughts-1st week of NOV

My not so deep thoughts for the week are going to be separated into  boos and YAYS this week.  I don't really like to have boos...but let's face it they happen.  So I will start w/ boos and end on the HIGH of the yays : ). (sorry for those of you annoyed by emoticons...I love them).

BOOS

• Teaching kids cracked out on candy is not for me!
• I got pulled over yesterday for a non-existent break light. What sucks is Drew checked it last week and it worked...I say BOO! I only got a warning
• Slow week for business and lost another tapper due to an interest in volleyball :(
• I love my cats but last night they were creating a sauna by sleeping on me...leading to little sleep b.c I am too nice to disrupt them. Tonight they will be disrupted.
• I am searching for a new face wash b/c I just read this article about cetaphil.  Did you know that?  Also still searching for a good day time moisturizer.  It's hard to find something right for your skin that's good for your body and the environment.
• No one has suggested any work out songs for me....come on people ;)
• I am playing with my blog design...not sure that I like it...don't really have the money to hire someone...but I will figure out a way.

YAYS

• We had dinner with our pastors and their families last night. It was really nice.  They are so down to earth, real and full of God's love.
• OPI-has a new line of nail polishes inspired by my close friends, THE MUPPETS : )
• I'm having a craft day at my house on Saturday. So excited!
• We are going to our first "8 @ 8" tomorrow night. Once every 4 months our church has a night where 8 people (4 couples or 8 singles) get together for a meal at 8pm and fellowship. We are bringing dessert so I am taking my pumpkin pie crumble cake.
• My roller skates should arrive tomorrow...so pumped.
• This past weekend was phenomenal. Got to spend time w/ my niece and her friend, go shopping, have dinner w/ folks, had brunch w/ our mutual BFF David who ran his first marathon on Sunday, craft, make chili, cornbread and apple betty.
• I finally got a new purse and I love it : ).
• We are getting our air ducts and carpets cleaned today at our house!
• We are picking out paint colors and painting on Sunday (I hope).
• My high school BFF is possibly coming for a visit tomorrow and bringing her baby, Lynsey.  I can't wait!
• I'm thinking of having my first giveaway on my blog.

About to go teach some more cracked out, Halloween candy eating, kiddos.  I am going to try to post some pics tonight from OCT.

November Guest Blog-Katy's Neverending Story

November brings my first ever guest blogger.  I am so excited to introduce you to Katy of Katy's Neverending Story .  Katy and I have been friends long before either of us ever started blogging and I am thrilled to have her write for Lins on the Go.  Katy's blog is so funny and honest as she shares the ups and downs of being a newlywed in the city.  Katy is a multi-talented gal who constantly amazes me. I am so thankful for her friendship and was honored to be a bridesmaid in her beautiful wedding last year.  I hope you enjoy her as much as I do : ).

                                          Katy and I on the UGLY BETTY set-Summer 2009

Where are you from and where do you live now?
I'm from Macon Georgia and live in NYC now.

How long have you been blogging?
Just over 3 years.

Do you have a favorite topic you blog about?
I like to blog about stuff happening in NYC and my continuous battle to adapt to this crazy city life.

How did you find my blog or how did we connect?
10 years of friendship!!  I love your blog!!

Are you married or in a significant relationship?
Married to Mr A since May 2010

How does your partner/husband feel about your blog/blogging?
He thinks it's funny- as long as I don't get too personal

What are your three favorite blogs?
Lay Baby Lay (www.laybabylay.com)
Marriage Confessions
And Lindsey's!!!!!!! (I didn't pay her to say this either...lol)

Do you have a favorite quote, scripture or saying you'd like to share w/ readers?
"Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.". Isaiah 12:5

                                           Katy and Drew-LONG TIME friends-March 2010

Friendship

Some people forge friendships over major events in their lives. Some become friends over a show or through a class in school. With Lindsey and I, our friendship was formed before we ever met- at least from my point of view.

Lindsey was engaged to a hometown friend of mine and was scheduled to come to Macon to teach after college. Drew, her intended, and my friend, still had a year or so of school, so Lindsey would be living with her future in-laws and planning a wedding. When Drew's mom called and asked me if I wanted to meet Lindsey, I immediately said YES!  See, I knew off the bat we would be amazing friends.  I'm sure Lindsey had other things on her mind (wedding planning, being away from her fiancé, moving in with in-laws, first year teaching) than making a new friend, but I knew that we were meant to be buddies for life.

Lindsey and I are  basically fraternal twins from different mothers.  While we do not look alike, we are pretty much the same personality on the inside.  We've played the same roles, we like the same music and there's never a shortage of subjects to talk about.

Since meeting each other, we have both done the following (although not always at the same time):

Gotten married
Taught students
Played the love interest in a play
Played Lucy in "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown"
Thrown showers for each other
Moved to New York City
Been in "Oliver"

Our phone chats are few and far between but when they do happen, it's like we can pick up right where we left off. Sadly it's been WAY too long since we've lived in the same city, but when I was picking bridesmaids, there was no question in my mind who I would want as a bridesmaid when it was my turn to walk down the aisle. She's supportive, caring, hilarious, SO freaking talented, and the bestest of buddies.