throw me some moon pies!!!

It's that time again. MaRdI GrAs!  It's a shame Birmingham doesn't celebrate Mardi Gras.  For the first five years of my life we lived in Mobile, AL where Mardi Gras is a major holiday. Schools let out for it, parades are a must, and I can always remember me and my sister and our neighbor's 2 girls being left with a  babysitter for a night while our parents went the the Ball. Of course, back in the 80's, I remember my mom wearing dresses with lots of lots of sequins!  I can think of one in particular that was kind of a mauvey pink color, it was fitted, had puffy shoulder cap sleeves, and was completely covered in sequins. Oh, I wish I could show you the picture!  Gotta love the 80's.

This weekend, Greg and I, along with my sister, mom and their dates, will head down to Mobile and enjoy Mardi Gras with our dear Mobile friends :)  These are the friends that we go to Disney World with, and they are like family.  We don't get to see them very often, but no matter how long it's been, we just pick up where we left off and good times always follow.  Our parents have been friends since before any of us kids were born, and  now we're all grown up.  Almost all the kids are married now. Their two girls are married, and me and Katie will be getting married this year. Emily is the only "baby" left of the kids, and if only she was 21 she'd be coming along too.  We'll all be attending the Maids of Jubilee Mardi Gras Ball in Fairhope, AL.  I love Fairhope. It's such a cute little old southern town.

Here's a few pics from last year's Mardi Gras celebrations.  My good friend DK came with me to celebrate, and I don't know if you remember, but it was last year that a snow storm hit all of Alabama on Mardi Gras weekend.  It was a bit of a trek getting down to Mobile, but we made it and it was well worth it!

Here's a peek at the driving conditions on the way to Mobile last year

Here we are at the Ball. Mr. Doug, Stephen (Renee's fiance at the time) and Renee. Renee rides on the Maids of Jubilee float, so she gets to wear crazy costumes!

And here's me and DK enjoying the parade. Luckily this year the weather should be warmer, so we won't have to bundle up in our snow gear!

It should be fun, although we will get hit with some rain this weekend.  Yuck.  Be sure to check back next week for some fun pics! :)

SpRiNg....come here!

I have been LOVING this weather lately, along with everyone else, I'm sure.  And the daffodils popping up everywhere just makes me smile as I drive around town.  Today I decided to do some yard work out back in preparation for spring planting.  There were (and still are) so many leaves in my backyard!  I didn't get very far in my progress, due to the afternoon showers that hit.  Speaking of those showers, how is it possible to have hail coming down when it's 80 degrees outside!?  I was just sitting on my couch as it got darker and darker outside, and when the rain got here, all of a sudden a huge gust of wind came through with about 30 seconds of HAIL STORMING!  I was shocked. I thought tree branches were falling on my roof, but when I got up to look around there were big balls of ice covering my yard.  Crazy.  Luckily it didn't last long.  And although it's still raining, the sun is coming back out :)

Anyways, so I went out today and clipped some daffodils from the yard, and they look just lovely on my mantle.  Along with the flowers I clipped earlier this week from my Valentine's bouquet (which, yes, is reaching it's last days of beauty), the house is starting to look more and more springy each day!  I love it.

 

 Well, I think a little afternoon nap is in order. I had to get an early start today for my jury duty, which luckily I got out of.  Technically, I've never changed my voters registration, I just drive back to Hoover if I want to vote.  Well, Hoover and Homewood are in different justice systems, so it turned out that I didn't even qualify to serve as a jury in that court system.  Yay!  Saved from jury duty once again :)

darn night shift

Majority of the time I don't mind working night shift.  Sure, there are things I miss out on in the evenings when everyone else is off from work.  And sometimes sleeping all day between shifts can be annoying (especially recently when the weather has been so nice!).  It actually has its perks sometimes when I'm able to stay awake after working the night before, and I can still do things the next day...whatever that may be.  BUT, every now and then I get days like I've had this week, that makes me hate night shift.

I was off work over the weekend, but had to work Sunday night.  Sunday morning we got up for church, had lunch, had a little bridesmaids get together with my sister and her bridesmaids, so by 4pm I was able to lay down for a nap. Slept for 2 hours, then worked my night shift. By Monday morning I was pretty tired, so I laid down to sleep for a few hours and next thing I knew it was 5pm.  And that proceeded to ruin the rest of my week.  Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night I was awake until about 3 and 4am, and of course slept until about 3 or 4pm Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday I finally was up and awake before noon, so I had a full day to enjoy.  But then somehow today I felt exhausted and ended up sleeping all day again (until about 4pm).

Since I typically don't like working 3 nights in a row, I don't usually get many long breaks off from work.  4 days off is a good break for me, and unfortunately this round I didn't get to enjoy much of it.  There's not much you can do when you're day starts at 4pm.  Luckily I get a LONG break (6 days off) early in March.  Let's just hope this doesn't happen again!