Blue & White Basketball Night

Last night we hosted an NCAA watch party, which I aptly titled the Blue & White Basketball Night. Invited guests were asked to bring food to share, and show up wearing their blue & white to support the #1 seeded Kentucky Wildcats. The evening was a blast. We had hamburgers, fries, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, homemade mac & cheese, chips galore, sundried tomato jam on crostini with goat cheese and thyme (thank you Chef Boyrar-Greg), and of course, Blue & White frosted cupcakes!

I decorated with blue & white pom poms, and little basketballs I found at the dollar store, and as a table centerpiece, used 3 stemless wine glasses (thanks, Rhonda Lu!) and filled them with the basketballs, and some daisies in blue food-colored water.

Even Grandma Anna found some blue & white to wear!

Thanks aunt Peggy for that Kentucky flag you see in the background- at least, I think that came from you!

Cheering the Cats onto a victory- L to R, Brian, Greg, Kim, Anna, Felicia, and baby Nevaeh- check out her Wildcats cheerleading outfit!

With mommy's permission, Bradley gets a cupcake!

Our little cheerleader. He stood at the tv and shook his pom pom!

Me & my hubby- doesn't he look great in Blue??

UK alums befriended in Florida: Amanda & Kim

Group Photo- the only person we're missing is John (Anna's husband) who came early, then had to leave and come back later. We had such a great time hanging out and watching basketball together with everyone. Have I mentioned that I am simply mad about March??!!

A Season of Blue

Someone's Facebook status read yesterday, being a UK fan is soo much more fun this year than it was last year. I couldn't agree more! We have turned our team around, thanks to our new head coach John Calipari and his great recruits of our mostly freshman-starred team. As the season has gone on, I have met more and more UK fans, attended a NW Florida alumni watch party, and met some great new friends in the process. Bradley mimics me screaming at the tv during games, so he's the darling of the room everywhere we go as he shakes his pom pom and yells "Go, Go!" claps his hands, and says "Cats Cats!" (we're still working on the third Cats, but I'll take what I can get!)


I have aptly titled this blog post "A Season of Blue" after my favorite blog about UK sports A Sea of Blue. Watching games with friends and family this season has been a blast, and I love recruiting new fans all the time, especially turning my husband and son into Wildcat fans whether they like it or not. Here is a season's worth of our UK clad family and friends:

Bradley with Grandma & Grandpa B in Tennessee after the Louisville game


Freshman roommates Amanda and Ellen, with the littlest Wildcat at Christmastime



Blue Orleans: Conley, Ari, Bart, me, and Bradley during the Vandy game in January

The other Vandy game- the one we almost didn't win, we watched at a sports bar on Okaloosa Island as part of the unofficial NW Florida UK alumni association. Here we met our new friends Kim and Greg.

Tyler is happy because we're winning

Kim and I lead the old foaggies in the C-A-T-S Cats Cats Cats cheer


My boys in blue

Has anyone else noticed that getting your kids to say cheese does not result in the most natural looking smile?

One lone guy at our table, a friend of a friend, was a Florida fan, and this is what we do to Florida fans' hats


"Go, Go!"


Our friends Matt and Shannon and their son Braylon came to spend a few days with us, and were here to watch the UT game. Matt is a Kentuckian by birth, Shannon is a Wisconsin convert like Brian, and Braylon doesn't have a choice at this point!

Me with UK alum Kim, and her boyfriend Greg

Kim took and edited this picture of Bradley- we discovered that pickles are a good distraction and keep him occupied for a while!

Family photo in Blue taken at Pensacola beach after the UT game. Even the sun couldn't cheer us up after that tough loss.


Finishing up the regular season, we watched the Florida game at Buffalo Wild Wings. Ann took this picture with her phone, so it's proof that she was here rooting on the Cats to a victory this day, along with Kim and Greg as well.

Yesterday's nail biter we watched at Helenback's in Navarre with Tyler, Felicia, their friend Bill, and their daughter Nevaeh. Bradley was cranky by the time the game went into overtime, and so all the screaming when Demarcus Cousins made the last shot to send the game into OT made him cry! Otherwise he was a good little cheerleader.

Babies and Mamas: Felicia and Neveah in her pink UK gear, and me and Bradley in our blue

It's just been announced that we're a #1 seed going into the NCAA tournament, and the Florida chapter of Big Blue Nation is up to the challenge of cheering on our Wildcats to victory! In fact, I think we just decided to host a party at our house on Thursday night to watch the first game. Anyone got any great ideas for blue and white foods??

Grandma & Papa come to Florida

This past weekend Grandma and "Papa" came for a visit. It was too short as visits normally are, but it was great having mom and dad here for a few days. They got here early enough on Friday morning for me to go to my stroller class kid-less, which is a rare luxury to be able to concentrate on the class and not worry about Bradley the entire time. When I got home we all headed over to Tiger Point park to take advantage of the gorgeous sunny day. Bradley's favorite thing right now is the slide!

Swinging with Grandpa

I have no idea what he was yelling here, but the expression is priceless!

Climbing through one of the tunnels

After playing at the park we grabbed lunch at Firehouse Subs. Oh my gosh I love those sandwiches so much and it's probably because of the special sauce and melted cheese that is in no way healthy! After Bradley demolished his sandwich he played the spoon game with Grandma as he would clamp down after each bite of applesauce.

Brian had to work a weird overnight schedule on Friday, so the rest of us spent the rest of the day at home. Bradley napped and then I fixed a favorite chicken and pasta recipe of Giada DeLaurentis for dinner with sauteed zucchini and squash as a side for dinner. That night after B went to bed we watched Matt Damon in The Informant! The movie is very slow- all talk, no action, but the title character is quirky for sure. It was an entertaining pick for a buck.

Saturday morning Grandma B and Bradley watched Elmo while everyone got ready. I was hoping that having the grandparents here would keep B from asking for Elmo every five minutes, but that didn't happen. He is obsessed right now, and so I am begrudgingly obliging once or twice a day.

We headed over to the newly opened Gulf Breeze Zoo and spent the morning there. Brian and I went ahead and bought zoo passes so we can take Bradley whenever we want all season. This is Bradley with Grandma and Grandpa B in front of the zoo.

One cool thing is that you can buy a cup of feed and feed any of the animals. The giraffe was the coolest one by far that let Bradley feed him.

Mommy's little tiger

Family photo at the end of our zoo trip

Bradley with Grandma & Grandpa B. I thought the picture was good when I was taking it, but the sun was so bright that I guess I didn't notice that Bradley was making a weird face, and mom wasn't even looking at the camera- ha!

After the zoo and getting lunch at a local place I'd been wanting to try, Brian and dad spent the rest of the afternoon installing a timer for our sprinkler system. Nothing's ever as easy as it's supposed to be. 3 trips to Lowe's and several hours later into the darkness, the guys were successful in their task.

Chandler, who thinks he's a lap dog, snuggled up with mom on the couch. A few minutes later he started to snore, and mom fell asleep too with him laying on her like that.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church, and then changed into our UK gear and went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UK-Florida game. You'd think being in the state of FL the game would have already been on, but we had to request they put the game on the tvs, and also get them to turn the sound on. I forgot to take any pictures today. I guess I figured we have enough UK-clad pictures? After UK won, we said bye to mom and dad and they headed back to Tennessee.

Bradley woke up Monday morning and asked for Grandma and papa- he was confused as to why they weren't there! Don't worry little B, we'll see them in a month when we're up in TN for Easter! Thanks for the great visit, mom and dad. We'll see you soon.

Computer Complaints

2010 has brought nothing but computer woes to me it seems! First there was the massive virus, then the week spent trying how to handle that, then the week at the computer shop. Then after getting it back home again, I couldn't get my pictures to offload from my camera (something I'm doing every few days in order to have new pictures to put in blog posts) and now the computer will not even turn on!! So I am back to using my decrepit, old, broken down Mac.

I am bored not being able to blog with pictures, and I'm sure you're bored reading this. Heck, I bet you're not Even reading this! You probably took one look and scanned down and saw no pictures of Bradley so you went on to your next stop on the world wide web. Can't say as I blame you.

I am on day 4 of the Transformation Challenge, and I'm excited to have Scottie Dog and Rhonda Lu doing it with me, long distance. So far, I finally tried out a local yoga class Tuesday night, and I am still sore from it- VICTORY! and then yesterday, I resisted sharing a bowl of ice cream with Brian at 10 o'clock at night, only because I had eaten some after lunch prior that day. FAILURE! And then after I said no, I made him give me bites anyways... EVEN BIGGER FAILURE! Today I'm going running though, and tomorrow I have stroller class to look forward to.

Oh yes, and one more thing- Mom and dad are coming to visit tomorrow! I am super excited since I haven't seen them since New Year's. And hopefully I'll be blogging soon (with pictures) about how we got our computer fixed once and for all.

Run-on sentences

Today officially starts the 90 Day Transformation Challenge. Become a fan of "About Face Fitness" on Facebook to keep up with the contest and post encouraging messages! My post today said this: enjoyed my last coke yesterday... only 89 more days to go- ha ha!

I ran a 5K this past weekend, and as far as times go, it was my worst one out of the three I've done (35:16) but to be fair, I was running with a group this time, and wanted to stay with the group when I could have pushed myself at the end. Today however, I registered for the McGuire's St. Patrick's Day Run which is coming up on March 13th. I had to list a prediction time, and so I put down 33:30. If I can run that, it will be my best time, and put me towards my goal of running a 5K in under 30 minutes. In each division, the runners closest to their predicted run time win prizes.

Purple Powerhouses: Kim, Jess, and me

Kim and I before the race, wearing our matching About Face Fitness sweatshirts.

After the race Kim went to get her stuff out of my trunk and she wondered how we'd know whose sweatshirt was whose. Without missing a beat, I replied, "smell them." It's a well known fact that everyone has their own distinct scent, and so after sniffing the shirt we were each holding, we exchanged them quickly with a laugh and a, "this one's yours!"

The 90 Day Transformation Challenge

My friend Jessica is a personal trainer, and is sponsering a program called the 90 Day Transformation Challenge, meant to encourage and motivate people to take their fitness seriously by setting short term goals for themselves, and communicating with fellow challengers. Today is the cutoff for signing up for this, but it's free to sign up, and there are awesome prizes for both the locals and the out of towners, so follow the above link to her website and take the challenge with me!

Part of the challenge is to update everyone on your goals at least once a week, so I plan on using the blog as a forum for my personal progress. Below are my goals that I emailed to Jessica, copied here in black and white, so they're there for the world to see, so no backing out now!

During the next 90 days, I plan on eliminating extra calories and "processed sugar garbage" by giving up cokes entirely (for a southerner, this translates to not drinking any kind of soda or pop, for you yankees). My goals are to run a 5K in under 30 minutes, drop a full clothing size from an 8 to a 6, and lose 10 pounds at least, putting me somewhere in the 125 range. I plan on keeping up with my running 3 times a week, and stroller fit class twice a week, and I'd also like to work in some pilates and yoga here and there. Two Bible verses that I will use to motivate and encourage me are:

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14 and

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have received from God? You are not your own." 1 Corinthians 6:19.

The end result of this challenge for me is that by June 1st, I will be a "hot hot mama," look good in my swimsuit, and be well on my way to my new year's goal of being in the best shape of my life.

All up in the mustard

I feel like I have rejoined the land of the living, now that we have our computer back from the shop. Darn those viruses! I feel I have some catching up (Ketching up) to do, so away we go.

• I haven't done any monthly milestone blogs lately, so right now Bradley is 20 months, and this picture is of Bradley mesmerized by Elmo. Watching Elmo has become a fascination within the last month. Once a day, I will give in to the request of "Momo?" as B holds up the dvd case to the Elmo video he got for Christmas. It's been less than 2 months, and I'm already sick of hearing those songs on the dvd, and I'm pretty sure I have the 30-minute video memorized. Most mornings I also let him watch Sesame Street. Slowly I am easing up on my no tv rule, but his time spent in front of the boob tube is certainly still limited.

• Another fun game for Bradley these days, not so much for mommy, is pulling the dvds off the shelf. I am trying to have patience and make Bradley learn to put them back one by one while I help him, but I usually wait until he's moved on to something else, and then I shove them all back on the shelf hastily. I laugh at the people who are attempting to keep their dvds in alphabetical order. I gave up that dream a long time ago!

This is a group shot for our New Orleans trip. Maybe one of the worst trips of my life, but definitley with the best people!

And these were my post-NOLA-trip-I-Love-You-Flowers. They were gorgeous, and stayed that way for 2 weeks! I also came home that day to a clean house, and dinner made by Brian.

Ah yes, this picture portrays another favorite toy of Bradley's these days, only it isn't a toy, it's our tv remote. Twice now he has ordered pay-per-view movies that we've had to fight to get taken off our cable bill, and more than once the remote has gone missing. I got stuck watching a dateline episode about Michael Jackson's last days a few weeks ago because the remote was missing and I couldn't change the channel without it!
Finally, here is my little handsome man after church yesterday. Doesn't he look so grown up? Thank you Grandma B for this adorable outfit and shoes! Now if anyone spots a dressy pink Easter outfit for boys, let me know, because I am on the lookout. I figure as long as Bradley's too little to know or care, I'm going to take advantage of these years and dress him in as much pink as I want.

And two became one, two years ago

2 years ago today, Brian and I joined our lives together in marriage. For those of you that know our story, the fact that we are able to celebrate our year anniversary today is quite an accomplishment. It has been a lot of love, a lot of prayer, determinaton, forgivenss, and prayer!

In honor of Mardi Gras today, and because we honeymooned in New Orleans, I made us a romantic candlelit breakfast of beignets. Even more romantic was that I burned the oil and filled our house with smoke. Oh well, at least the pure fried yumminess still turned out okay. We have a picture from our honeymoon eating the bengnets at Cafe Du Monde, so here's the same shot 2 years later! You'll notice in the bottom of the picture is Chandler begging for beignets, which he eventually got!

Now tonight we get to cap off the day with a nice dinner out at my favorite local Mexican restaurant, Cactus Flower Cafe. I have been sufficiently starving myself today for the occasion! Thanks for sharing in this milestone with us!

snow close!

Snow. It's not just a white rapper from the 90's. It's also a wintry precipitation, the bain of mid-atlantic-ers' existence, but something we Floridians (yes, that's right I said we), have not seen in a long time. While BFF Heather is still stranded in jolly London town after the Snowmageddon forced her to vacate DC early, and remain in the UK until after her and Jacob's scheduled departure date, I have felt like the only person on the planet, aka Facebook, who hasn't seen snow this year. Even Sarah Scott Holton who's in Dallas forcryingoutloud, is seeing snow today. But Hell and Florida just might freeze over yet.

According to several news sources, we are currently under a winter storm warning! Parts of my county in northwest Florida may see "significant amounts of snow, ice and sleet"on Friday that will make travel "very hazardous or impossible." The article goes on to say that closer to the coastline, where I am, parts of the state may see a "trace" of snow, or "an inch or more." Hey, I'll take a trace! I have always hated winters without snow, and this winter Florida has seen record breaking cold temperatures, and record amounts of days with below-freezing temps. So bring on the snow! A licky boom boom down!

On an unrelated note, this is my 900th blog post. Pretty amazing I think!

ESPN U betcha!

I am especially crazy about Kentucky basketball this year. Perhaps it's because we're currently ranked number 2 in the country. At any rate, I was all geared up to watch last night's game between UK and Alabama, which started at 8 o'clock central time, perfect since that's Little B's bedtime. Right around 7:30-ish, Brian is flipping channels and trying to find out what channel the game is on. I assumed ESPN since almost all (maybe all) of our Tuesday night games have been ESPN Super Tuesday games. But one should never assume. We found out quickly that the game was on ESPNU instead, a channel we don't have.

Our computer is in the shop, so any chances of me watching streaming video or listening to it on the computer weren't happening as my poor Mac that we're forced to use right now is old and slow, and would not allow me those capabilities. Brian firmly says, "take Bradley into his room to play. I'll talk to Mediacom and get the game for us." I have learned not to question the man when he speaks with such authority, so into Bradley's room we went.

20 minutes later, with Bradley asleep in bed, Brian triumphantly announces that we not only have ESPNU, but that we have it for free for an entire month! I was able to watch the Kentucky game last night, and will be able to see many more good college basketball games in the month to come, and just as soon as our free preview ends, it will be time for March Madness- absolutely perfect! My husband is a man who can get things done, and he never ceases to amaze me with his ability to talk his way in and out of things!

Just say NO-LA

This past weekend, Ari, Conley, and I met up for a DIVA weekend in New Orleans. Bradley came with me, and hindsight now being twenty-twenty, I wished I left him at home to have a guys' weekend with dad! My toddler had to be on constant supervision as the house had plenty of little nicknacks everywhere for little hands to get into, plus Bradley enjoyed chasing the kitty-cats everywhere. Given his recent experience with a dog bite, I wasn't leaving him alone for a second with cats who are not used to children!

The weather was dreary and cold, making it impossible for us to go anywhere and take advantage of all that the Crescent City had to offer. So between the weather and the nap schedule of little B, we pretty much spent the entire weekend indoors at the house. We ventured a few blocks down for some dinner one night, and coffee the next morning, but other than that, we were total couch potatoes. Usually when you're in good company this is just fine, but I suppose I'm a frustrated house-wife stuck in a small town these days, so it was killing me to be in such a cool city as New Orleans and not be able to get out and do anything. (Again, another reason that Bradley would have fared better with Brian for a couple of days.)

Reason number 2 is that Bradley refused to sleep either night we were there. I tried my best to stay up late with the girls and spend quality time with them, but then long after they were snoozing and snuggled up, I had a crying kid on my hands who refused to be consoled, no matter how many pacis I gave him, and no matter how long I held him. I couldn't let him cry it out and fall back to sleep on his own, lest the entire house be woken up, so I fought back the exhausted tears, and coerced Bradley back to sleep each and every time he woke up in the middle of the night. This left me drained by Sunday morning. I didn't even have the desire or the energy to hang out with the girls and get on the road by lunchtime like I'd originally planned, I just wanted to be HOME. We'd been up since before 7am, but waited until both Ari and Conley were awake so we could say 'bye' to them, and then a little before 10am, we pulled out and headed back towards Florida... or so I thought...

Even now, days later, I'm trying to find a way to make the story lighthearted so I can laugh along with everyone else, but the humor is just nowhere to be found it seems. I called Brian once I got on the interstate to let him know I was in the car, and I recall seeing signs for I-10. I hung up with him, and then called Heather. After I had hung up with her, I started noticing the sights around me; new sights that were unfamiliar. I was seeing signs telling me how far away Baton Rouge was, and I knew I didn't see those on the way in. I had been driving for one hour. Finally I pulled off the interstate at the next exit and looked at the signs. It was exactly as I had feared. I had been driving on I-10 sure enough, but instead of heading east towards Pensacola, I was going west, straight for Texas!!! I wanted to pull over on the side of the road and just stay there and cry. I did cry, but I made myself do it while driving back east.

So B and I got on the road again, headed towards New Orleans, and eventually home. I was so tired from lack of sleep that I could barely keep my eyes open. What was supposed to be a 3 hour trip that would have put me home at 1:30 became a 5 hour trip that landed me at 3:30! An hour later I called Ari to see if we by chance left any of our belongings at her house, in case we needed to hop off the interstate and pick them up since we were driving through town... again...

What's worse is that I can't even blame the mistake on the blonde hair, because the blonde is no more! I suppose I can only blame stupidity, and lack of awareness on my part, although the exhaustion has to play a factor too.

It was a long ending to a long weekend. Next time, I vow it will just be me and the girls. Next time when Brian asks me if I'm going to take Bradley with me, I will just say NO.

past the paci

My baby boy is growing up fast, and we have yet another milestone under our belt. The pacifier is now a thing of the past. This weekend he chewed up 2 of them while we were in New Orleans, so I decided that was his way of telling me he was done with them. We put him down without a paci in his crib last night and then again for his nap today. Both times he protested a little, then eventually put himself to sleep, so I suppose we have successfully done away with the paci for good.

I was anti-pacifiers when I was pregnant, but gave in on day 2 I think after Bradley was born and gave him one in order to get some sleep that night. He's never been allowed to have the paci in his mouth during the day, but we give it to him in the crib to sleep, and he knows it has to stay in the crib when he gets up in the morning or after his nap. I also used it in the car when he was fussy or in extreme situations in the store when he was whiny. Originally we'd planned on weaning him from it at 18 months, but I dreaded it so much that I put it off. However, at almost 20 months now, it seems that the process was even easier than I'd ever anticipated. The pacifier is now a thing of the past.

Still Resolved

It's February 1st. Do you know where your resolutions are??

I made it through January 2010 in pretty good shape (pun intended) in working towards my 2010 goal of being in the best shape of my life. I worked out an average of 4 times a week which is amazing for a self-proclaimed couch-potato in the throws of the cold winter months! I read the book Skinny Bitch which has forced me to take a long hard look at what kinds of food I put into my body, and has zapped up what little taste for milk I ever had before I read it.

Unfortunately, I'm starting out my February by skipping my Monday morning stroller class! After getting no sleep this weekend, Bradley and I lazed in bed until 8am this morning, and it was too cold here to motivate me to get ready and out the door in 45 minutes. We watched reruns of the Grammy's Red carpet show on E and Sesame Street and ate french toast instead. I vow to do better the rest of the week though.