Holiday Spirit

The GROW carolers at the Junior League general membership meeting and holiday party on Monday night sure put me in the holiday spirit!


The Community Resource Center looked beautiful in white and gold and the special events committee outdid themselves with the delicious food. Oh and we got so many wonderful donations for the toy drive and the GROW necessities baskets.


What a wonderful way to kick off this holiday season! I just want to soak it all in...I have so much to be thankful for!
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Weekend wrap up!

Ray and I kicked off this Holiday season by going to see the Nut Remix by New Ballet on Friday night.  The talent on that stage was amazing and I love supporting New Ballet as they are doing so much good in Memphis (including teaching a ballet class at Lester to some of our GROW kids every Tuesday!).
We got home just as Mike and Sarah were arriving.  Mike had to work some in Memphis this weekend, so Sarah came along to go shopping, get mani/pedis, take walks along the river and just hang out.  On Saturday, we kept our sweet college friend's littlest while they attended the her husband's grandmother's funeral.  Christian was so good!  He enjoyed shopping and eating just as much as we did!
Saturday afternoon we met up with the guys to watch football at Movie and A Pizza.  Then we took Uber (which may be my new favorite form of transportation) to try out High Cotton Brewing Company!  Then onto Overton Square for dinner and to cheer on our Vols.  It was a sad loss...
Sunday we all meet up with Allison and her family for brunch before they headed back to Kansas City.  I sure do love getting to spend time with these ladies and am looking forward to our girls trip...Torrey, we decided we needed to move the date up!

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Busy week!

With board meetings and a work dinner, but I did squeeze in a baby shower for Kembree and a birthday dinner with Karen!






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Last weekend with our favorites!

Last weekend we had such a fun time with Lily and Layne and Mullen!  We did everything they wanted to do and the pictures tell it all!  

Thanks for my note Lily.  I love being your Ant!

A lot of reading whet on in the house!

Layne is so into planes and it makes his Uncle Ray so happy!

They love to paint, but Layne's arm started hurting about an hour end.  I wish I could figure out how to post a video, because I sure have a funny one of him!

They loved Big Hero 6.  It was in 3D and Ray said he loved watching Lily try to reach for the objects as much as he enjoyed the movie!

Then finally Mullen (and his parents) made it!

Nonna teaching Lily her math skills with lottery tickets.  They both love this!

I'm a huge believer in bike helmets and Layne told me he didn't like his because it was too big, so he didn't have it on when he fell off his bike and bumped his head!  So we made a stop to get him one that fits and he was so proud.  I hope he is still wearing it!

On Sunday we went to the zoo.  It started out cold, but warmed up quickly and all the animals were active and fun. The all absolutely loved it!  It was Mullen's 1st trip, but I'm sure he will be asking to go back again soon!

Molly, Mullen and Lily pretending to be groundhogs!

Can you spy YaYa under all her bamboo?

Vegas

I spent last week in Vegas at the world's largest automotive show.  Seriously, it was all work (even for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday) and I never even had a moment to put a dollar in the slot (which didn't make my mom proud!)  However, I did get to play golf on Monday afternoon at the Wynn.  It was seriously the most beautiful course I have ever and will probably ever play on. The greens fees were definitely more than my golf game is worth, but needless to say since we had a change in the oil buyer and my Director needed another to play with him, I got the honors!  However, for me even golf is a lot of hard work!

 But, we did have a caddie.  I had never played with one before and he was awesome!  He definitely got his workout chasing after my balls!

An add to your blog reads...

My dear friend, Jeni, is the current community impact director for JL and she has started a JL Blog.  Yesterday's post was about the transformation of the preK room.  You can check it out at:  http://jlmemphis.wordpress.com/

My Happy Place

Last weekend we joined Ray's parents at Orange beach!  It had been years since we had been there.  We were excited that our schedules worked out.

We had the best time relaxing, eating great food, cheering on the Vols to a victory, soaking up the sun (for one day at least) and just visiting!

We had the most magnificent view from our balcony!

Definitely recommend Cosmo's and Shipp's Harbour Grill for dinner and The Gulf for a beach side lunch.  The Gulf is a newer establishment with beach seating, very cool set up!  The weather was ideal on Friday, but then some strong winds came through and man did it get cold on Saturday.  It was great to get away if only for a few days.

Flowers make me HAPPY!

These flowers made my day! Unexpected and definitely not necessary, but they are beautiful and smell fantastic!
They were just a little 'Thank You for Transforming Memphis and GROW' from my dear friend and president of the Junior League. Man, I love my volunteer job!


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Weekend Wrap Up!

Saturday was very busy, but oh so rewarding!  Jeni, Rebecca and I got to the community center extra early to ensure we had everything in place to renovate the PreK room prior to all the volunteers arriving.  The whole event was very well organized.  While we adopted the PreK room, the Grizzles' had a room they redid to turn into a study room and they also redid all the outside basketball courts! There were hundreds of volunteers from the community as well as guest appearance from most of the players.  Below is the PreK room prior to our renovation:

I think Tanky was more excited about the new dress up center than he was about meeting The Grindfather himself!

They are all tall, but against the kids they look crazy tall.  Some so much that the kids were scared of some of them!

The finished room!  Complete with an art center, reading center, media center (per their request) and housekeeping/dress up center.  The front of the room has a half moon desk with 4 spots for a teacher and kids to work in groups!

 One of the outside courts...so cool!

 Team pic with Tony Allen!

After I got home from the remodel, we went straight to a neighborhood tailgate to watch the Mississippi State vs. Kentucky game.  Then we hurried home as Ray made wings for the TN/AL game and we had some friends over to watch.  Brenner is one of the cutest, most personable TN fans I know!  He loved all the food and cheered hard for the Vols!

 The Hamburgers representing in their crimson!  Karen grew up in Tuscaloosa.

We had 3 TVs set up.  Tracy and Marcy both went to LSU, so they really enjoyed their game!  We also had the Ohio state game on the tiny tv for Julie since that is her alma mater.  It seemed to come in best when Ray held the rabbit ears!

Some of my very favorite friends!  The guys didn't want a picture, because they all went to TN and were not the best losers!  Despite Tennessee's loss, I believe everyone had a great time and I know everyone left stuffed from all the delicious food!  Fun, fun day and night!

Grizz Cares Day of Service Prep

With the Grizz Cares Day of Service on Saturday, we had a great prep night! We are so thankful the Grizzlies picked Lester for their NBA Cares event. The center is getting $30K in updates and is coming together so nicely! We have partnered with them and have adopted the new PreK room.
It is going to be awesome and will look like a standard PreK room with centers and group tables and new stuff...and a lot of old stuff that we freshened up with bright paint tonight!


So thankful my awesome dad came and helped! He even gave his audience lessons on running the drill! Can't wait for Saturday...



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Stride Against Breast Cancer!

Sunday was our 5K! AutoZone was the top fundraising company in Memphis. We had a goal of $15,000, but to date have raised $23,000!! There were over 6,000 walkers, but I was super excited my co-worker, Kim (not to be mistaken by my old assistant, Kim) asked me to walk with her! Kim and I are the same age...for 3 years she was the financial analysis on my floor. I never knew during that time she was battled stage 4 breast cancer, yet she always had a smile on her face and later told me my smile gave her strength! So glad so many organizations, like American Cancer Society are finding a cure so one day battling cancer will be a thing of the past.


Team AutoZone!


I so enjoyed being a part of this team and I thank you all for your support!
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The Grove

On a football Saturday is unlike any tailgating experience. They take tailgating up a notch! I absolutely love going and running into so many friends is an added bonus. I wish I had taken more photos and we would have won the game, but nonetheless it was a perfect fall Saturday in the South!








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Sunday Funday!

We made the most of this cloudy, muggy Sunday! Early church, a relaxation massage (Christmas present I finally put to good use) at The Peabody, Gone Girl with Ray, dinner with Emily and Caleb at Babalu and an after dinner drink at the new Lafayette's Music Room!


Plus 3 loads of laundry and a clean dishwasher...I'm ready for bed!
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Lots of cooking...

I really enjoy cooking, but I seem to cook the same thing all the time.  That is not a bad thing as we really like the recipes I make, but we needed to spice things up a bit!  So about a month ago I decided to make at least one new recipe a week.  I'm always pinning recipes and I finally put some to the test and I want to document them here so I can find them when I need them.  These were good, but we both decided I didn't need to make them again: Melt in your mouth chicken , Italian Mac and Cheese, Buffalo Wing Pretzels and Crab and Shrimp Bake.  On the other hand, we highly recommend these recipes:  Baked Chicken and Mushroom Skillet (this was all about the sauce and we decided the sauce would be good on fish, steak, pork chops, rice or even by itself!), New Orleans Style Shrimp and Rice (just the right amount of spice and a great flavor) and Bloomin' Baked Apple (we topped these with some vanilla ice cream and oh my they did not disappoint!).  I wish I had taken a picture of the apples because they were pretty too!
I also baked some salmon and made a sauce that we drizzled on top using Captian Rodney's as the base, some chopped pecans, brown sugar and soy sauce and WOW! it tasted like we were at a fancy restaurant...I hope I can duplicate that one again!  Happy Cooking...I'm off to find some new recipes as football plays on the big screen!

Back on Rocky Top

We had the best weekend in Knoxville for the TN/FL game...the only thing that would have made it better was a win!  We started tailgating at 9am with an alumni brunch and tour at the new Alpha Chi Omega house and ended way late at a RV tailgate (RV tailgating is the way to go!).  It was great to see Ray's parents, be back on campus, be a part of the #checkerboardneyland, enjoy the new drum line prior to the Power T, tailgate hop and run into friends throughout the day.  The rock was painted with Mr. '3rd Down for What' himself!

Safety Night

With some of the cutest, most inquisitive preschoolers I know!




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