April 27th

So this is Grace Egan Hutton! She is my friend Laurens baby and she has finally made her big debut into the world! Hurray! Lauren has informed me that Egan is a family name but also means 'fiery one' which she said was appropriate because little Grace gave her so much heartburn. They decided to wait and find out the whether baby precious cargo would be a boy or girl so I had to buy all unisex stuff for shower presents but the Huttons better watch out because I really know how to do pink and sparkly wayyyy better than yellow and sexually ambiguous :)

Congrats you two I am so happy for you and cannot wait to meet Princess Grace!

April 26th

Thanks for all your concern guys but we have not blown away yet. Our basement however is very wet and gross indeed. Gus has been waging a war with our sump (?) pump but so far it is to little avail because it won't friggin stop raining no matter how whiny or pouty I am. Stupid rain. I need it to stop asap because I am super tired of being damp and having to share a bathroom with Hermie again. Boys are super gross. Anyway if you want to see our riveting newscast from my county it can be viewed here.....

http://www.thesouthern.com/app/videos/#vmix_media_id=84289871

April 25th

Mumsy requested that I post pictures of the bunny cakes.

These are funfetti cupcake style cakes with cream cheese and regular frosting

decorated with glitter gels, sprinkles, m&ms, skittles and mini Cadbury eggs

nom.nom.nom

April 24th

Now THAT is a bomb ass table setting if I do say so myself :)

Carlos from HOP! Which I hope you have all seen he is so cute and funny looking. I put a Carlos lollipop in our Easter basket that we exchanged. Loooove his face!

Our lovely 10 pound Smithfield ham which came out perfectly... and to think I was so worried about making it!

Everyone opening their Easter baskets!

All the lovely Easter ladies.

My gorgeous table setting with seating for 10... take that formal dining rooms! ha!

April 23rd

Easter egg dyeing time!!! I went a little crazy we wound up coloring almost 36 eggs yikes! Totally fun though, I forgot how fun it was to write silly things on the eggs....

He made lots of Jesus eggs, don't worry ;)

My first succesful batch of bunny cakes, made with funfetti and love a Greene tradition continues!

Super fun egg coloring party!

April 22

Good Friday is upon us and thus my preparations for Easter weekend kick into full gear. Last year I spent my Easter sobbing at a very nice brunch because I missed being at home so much. This year in order to fight off the homesickness I have been proactive and planned my own Easter events.

Tomorrow we will be decorating bunny cakes (a Greene family tradition) and dying Easter eggs and then on Sunday I will be hosting my first Easter dinner. I even got a Smithfield ham and everything so I could rep my VA roots. With a little luck nothing will go terribly awry and if I does we have also stocked up on lots of wine.

So now I shall spend the day cleaning and puttering and preparing and hopefully everything will be lovely. Wish me luck!

April 21st

Dontcha just love this pic. This is my oldest friend (literally like since kindergarten) and I on one of her birthday trips to DC. Why would I post such an embarrassing picture of myself for you all to see? Well its kind of as a tribute to an ohmyhowfarwehavecome moment.

See Dani blogs as well here - http://martinisandmakeup.blogspot.com/
and it is super great, and I am not just saying that because I love her madly which I do :)
She now lives in DC and has a fabulous and glamorous life that the rest of us aspire to but she is always willing to share her tips and tricks. Some of my happiest memories are of playing dress up with Dani and now we get to do it as grownups with checking accounts and cosmopolitans, fabulous!

Anyways you should check out her blog because it and she are awesome. True story.

April 20th

In honor of 420 i.e. the day that potheads smoke (more?) and act like it is some kind of spiritual holiday I have posted this gem of a tanning poster. Since boyfriend specializes in mj research everybody around here is all a twitter for the next big pot study. Hurray, the means that I will be talking to stoned boys on the phone all day. *Sigh* Happy holiday though to you who partake ;)

April 19th

As some of you may or may not know we have had crazy storms going through our area the last few days. Lasts night the weather was absolutely crazy and I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and not in a good way. Of course my freakish boyfriend insisted upon sitting outside on the front porch and 'watching the weather' so if some morning you wake up, turn on the Weather Channel and hear that a Quaker blew away in the storm don't be surprised to find out that its Herman. Anyway we survived with no damage or water in the basement. Saints be praised, so since he is in love with the rain I made him into a sunshine lover instead.

<3

April 18th

Mumsy requested that I post a picture from my proms so that everyone could take a trip down memory lane together. Awwww. How young and cute and innocent we were back then.

Thats it I am crashing the Murphysboro High School prom. Forever young I say!

April 17th

So I know that I keep posting pictures from the place where I am tanning but it is just a hilariously surreal place. I was put in room 7 today and this is what the sign on the door said and I could not stop cracking up. Knowing me I would be worried about incurring the judgment of the posse of 18 and 19 year old girls who work at "Tan Yours Buns" so I was of course super grateful that they went ahead and put my mind at ease....

I will be able to sleep a little better tonight knowing that in room 7 at least, there is no judgment :)

April 16th

I really am a massive creeper with my camera phone but this is a blurry pic I snapped of a super cute prom couple who I just fell in love with. Gus and I went to Cape on Saturday because Ms. Paula was having a big warehouse sale and I thought there would be jewelry deals involved, which there weren't and it was tragic.

The upside though was that we got to try this delicious Italian restaurant called 'Bella' that we had never been too before and we were there at the perfect time to get dinner and a show. The place was full of prom couples with a line of limos and mini-vans waiting outside. It was like a fashion show that I could watch while drinking wine and eating pasta. Truly the best of both worlds.

It made me really nostalgic about my own prom and made me want to go back a decade (yes, eww a decade) and do it all over again. Gus did not share my sentiments his prom date had the flu and threw up in his Chevy Nova thus eternally scarring him. You win some you lose some but I am thrilled that prom season is upon us!

April 15th

Friday I was super excited because it was circus day and I looooooooooove the circus. I have to admit that I was a little taken aback when it was announced that Ringling Bros. was coming to the SIU Arena because it is a super small venue but then I just figured that the circus is magical and they would make it work.

I was wrong. Well technically I was right. I was suspicious when I checked the website and noticed the show coming to Carbondale was on a different circuit as the big city shows and now I know why. Ladies and gentlemen the circus I attended Friday night was a ONE RING CIRCUS. I did not even know that that concept existed but now I do.

There were no tigers, three elephants and way too much emphasis on the THREE (yes three) clowns. Now having just taken my entire family to the circus a few years ago with almost front row seats I know what a circus can be and this guys was not it. Plus to add insult to my disbelief was that everyone kept falling. Seriously there were like eight falls and mishaps in the show. The best part of the circus is knowing that the acts have it under control and are going to make that double back flip onto the back of a moving horse. These guys missed the memo, and the horses back repeatedly.

Towards the end I could no longer watch the show because I was so anxious that I had inadvertently paid to see a Romanian acrobat fall to her death. So in true So. Ill style an event that I love and cherish was turned into a night of terror and disappointment.

The highlight though was I got that super sweet wand that I am holding in the photo. It is pink and sparkly and whirls around really fast and all the cool girls at the circus (granted they were 8) had them, so obvi I had to have one too. Gus was a super good sport and I stopped pouting once I had my magic pink wand. No more understudy circuses for me though, I guess I will have to man up and go to the Lou for the real thing next time :)

April 14th

I choose to post a funny pic of Anna Banana today because today is her first time going to the vet since she has lived on Elm St so it is her day of reckoning as it were. We took her last year to get flea medicine and what not but this is going to be her big check up visit to make sure she is all up to date on shots and such and super healthy.

I think that I am more nervous than she is although to be fair she is the one hiding under Teddy :)

April 13th

So yesterday while trying to pick a fancy beer to have with dinner we can across this little gem. How funny is this?!? My favorite part is the tempered over burning witches....

No we did not buy any because while it is hilarious 12 dollars for a six pack seemed a tad bit exorbitant to me. After choosing another option we proceeded to our local family video rental where lo and behold they were playing Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life on all the tv's. Coincidence? I think not!

April 12th

This mornings super fun and completely undoctored picture of the day is brought to you by 17th St. BBQ. Gus and I love going there for super casual dinners as it is delicious and crazy close to our house (we can walk there, and let me just add it is neat being able to walk to restaurants/bars from your house I am a big fan). Last night it was sunny and rainy at the same time so we went and sat outside and that is when I observed this little gem.

Also last night marked a milestone in our 17th St. history because last night I grew a pair and worked up the courage to introduce myself to Mike himself. Mike is the Mike of 17th St. BBQ fame, he has been on tv and traveled all around the world doing BBQ -ish related things. You can learn all about his super epic feat here.

Anyways so after a pint or two I worked up the courage to go introduce myself and tell him all about how much I love my cute local little bbq joint (ironically I do not really care for their bbq but it does not really hinder my experience that much). He was completely gracious even after I told him that I was the Mayor of 17th St (on FourSquare of course) he seemed very impressed by my loyalty and love of his little meat empire and it was super awesome getting to finally talk to the legend himself. When you guys come to visit I will take you to meet Mike, promise!

April 11th

What we do for fun in Murphysboro. No lie.

This was taken on a trip to our local Rural King which specializes in everything you would need to live the country lifestyle. BUT while it smells funny and is filled with camo overalls it does have some perks.

The biggest being they sell 50 pound bags of rabbit food for like 5 bucks. Others being that they sell baby bunnies and chicks which are super cute to look at, and the piece de resistance they sell unshelled peanuts by the pound. Since peanuts weight almost nothing you can get a crap ton of peanuts for well for peanuts :)

So from time to time we go to play at the Rural King, while I have given into their salty and cute temptations I will never stray down the dark and evil Carhart aisle, don't worry.

April 10th

It would appear on this Sunday two weeks until Easter that the employees at the Murphysboro WalMart might have had a little too much time on their hands.....

I can just picture a few guys sitting around Saturday night saying we are really bored and Coke sent us this diagram of what we can do with the cans so lets go, and here was the end result.

At first I could not even see the bunny but at I walked further away it all started to make sense. Gus thought it was a shark so at least I am not the only one :)

April 9th

In honor of this past Saturday I found this super great bumper sticker :) Needless to say it really makes me want to investigate Handlebars in Silverton, CO. Saturday was actually pretty low key for us this weekend though and involved much relaxing, however we did get a chance to go and listen to my new favorite music obsession - The Swamp Tigers.

I discovered them Friday at SIU's 'Spring Fling' cookout where I was handing out anti-smoking propaganda to people who really love smoking. Thankless work that is. Anyway this group was playing and I danced around like I was at a Honky Tonk for their entire hour long set. It was magical!

Now I am obsessed. I emailed them and asked them to play my birthday party. I don't think they will play for wine and sheer adoration but a girl can always try right?

April 8th

This is a clock in my building in Life Science 2 that consistently is two hours fast making you feel like the day is almost over when it is nowhere near to being true. So someone put a sad face over it and I could not stop laughing.

Its a truly hateful clock that now reflexs its true inner spirit. Luckily though my time in the lab is done for the week and I am out to enjoy the lovely day. Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Muah!

April 7th

Teehee so this is a large poster hanging up in the tanning bed I go to. I also posted this to my Facebook but it is just so cheesy that I could not resist blogging about this guy. I realize that this is supposed to be a sexy male but I cannot stop giggling at the absurdity of him.

The feathered hair, the tight jeans, why is his poster hung up so prominently? All these questions have yet to be answered but he does crack me up so I am going to embrace it :)

April 6th

I snapped this pic on the dl trying to be really shady about it because the image just cracked me up. These two big biker guys in leather having a genteel wine tasting at Pomona winery which does not make any grape based wines....

So these two are sitting here sipping on a strawberry and a blueberry wine respectively. I love it!

April 5th

Here is Gus out playing catch with a super huge, super old black lab named Miles. We met Miles on one of our random winery tour days. We stumbled upon a winery near us called Hickory Ridge that is owned and operated by a bunch of super eclectic world traveling hippies. They live on the property is a small cottage that does not have indoor plumbing. Yea. Hippies.

Anyways they make what I think is the best wine on the Shawnee Wine Trail, and they have fun puppies to play with. Herman and I played a few rounds of riveting croquet before I dominated him in a to the wire wicket victory and we carried on down the merry little wine trail.

April 4th

This is me doing my best 12 year old girl on MySpace impression. Just kidding :) I got really bored and was playing with my hair. I was going for a Jennifer Aniston circa de la 1997 friends look but instead I feel like I just look like a cracked out girl with straight red hair.

Next time I am going to try super big teased disco curly hair. I will post pics!

April 3rd

This is also from last weekend. My lady friends Allison and Laura and I went to Cape Girardeau to play and shop and pretend as if we were ladies who lunch for the day. This is a shot of the girls posing with Mrs. Paula who is my vintage jewelry enabler/hookup in the Heartland. She has an incredible shop and is super warm and loving to EVERYONE it is kind of crazy.

I of course wound up spending too much money on beautiful things like I always do but at least I will be sparkly for Spring!

April 2nd

Our super delightful Homeboys invited us last weekend to participate in a trivia night fundraiser at the VFW to help support arthritis research. It is a super random night because all these teams get together some with themes, some with really young teams others with much more elderly teams. While I really love trivia games their questions are often totally obscure and Gus and I just scoff at how little we know about 1932.

Anyways it is a really fun night with our friends. This is Randy who has lately taken to wearing two pairs of glasses around his neck. One pair of sunglasses and the other bifocals. It produces a hilarious affect which I had to capture. I almost got in trouble though because you are not allowed to have smart phones out during the trivia rounds because you could cheat.

VFW fund raising trivia is taken super seriously after all :)

April 1st

This is just hateful how dare someone have the audacity to make a vanity plate with my favorite destination beach and have a Marion plate holder surrounding it! I don't know if I have told you guys this but I consider Marion to be the vortex of where hope goes to die. Literally. The people who live there have some strange genetic disorder that causes them all the walk like lumbering zombies in light denim which has caused me to bestow them with the moniker "the Marion Mutants". They are terrifying.

Anyways so I was excited upon recongnizing the Outer Banks and then dismayed that a Marion Mutant had invaded my happy place. So many emotions at once!