Christmas Decorations 2011

Merry Christmas 2011

Wishing You Merry Christmas Card

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Thanksgiving Supper Club

The Stathams hosted a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner for our November supper club. We had a fabulous time with great friends, good drinks, delicious food and football!Hayden is so talented and had the perfect Thanksgiving table set for us.  Isn't that artichoke arrangement amazing??

 

I was in charge of bringing the signature cocktail for the evening, so I pulled out my favorite book of drinks and found "The Bradshaw."  It was delicious and deadly.  I pretty much never drink tequila, but for some reason this recipe just looked too fun to pass up.  I was sad I didn't have the hot pink sugar rim, but otherwise, the drink was perfect.  We usually don't get to have supper club on a weekend night, so this was a special occasion for us to enjoy some yummy cocktails.

 

Here is the recipe plus a picture of the pretty cocktail.

 

Another view of the beautiful table

 

Baked Brie with 1/4c  pecans, 1/4c brown sugar, and 1 tbsp bourbon.

 

The ladies of the night! The boys were too busy watching football to take time to pose for a picture with us!

 

This was a perfect evening to get us all ready for Thanksgiving day with our families.  I am looking forward to spending a long weekend with my family in New Orleans.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!

1/2 Marathon Training Starts TODAY!

I have signed up for my first Half Marathon on March 4th, 2012. It is the New Orleans Rock N Roll Marathon Series! I am so excited. I have recruited a few friends to run it with me too.

So today started my first day towards training. I am starting with trying to do 2-3 runs per week for around 30-35min. I am using the Couch to 5k podcast by Robert Ullrey. You can download it for free from iTunes. I will use this for the month of November to build a running basis. I have some knee problems, so I am trying to slowly work through that. I will be doing weight training twice a week to try and keep my knee healthy.

At the beginning of December, I would like to start the Hal Higdon Novice Half Marathon Training guide.

I also downloaded the Couch to 10K app on my iPhone and I love it. It is great when I want a good 50-65 min run/walk training. It alternates running and walking and really helps build up your stamina.

I hope to keep the blog updated with my progress because it definitely helps to keep me accountable.

Today's Run:
5 min warm-up
8 min jog
4min walk
8 min jog
5 min cool down
Total: 30 min

This was the view on my jog tonight. It was perfect and the weather was AMAZING!

Halloween on Government St.- O.S, MS

It is not often that all the couples of supper club (all 3 couples) are home in Ocean Springs on a weekend, but this past weekend we were all home and ready to celebrate Halloween!!

We put on our costumes, ordered pizza and then hit Government St. To bar hop. It was a great outing!

Halloween Supper Club

Last week it was Matt and I's month to host supper club! We pulled together a chili and cornbread feast, vodka basil martini's and a delicious pumpkin crumble cake for dessert!! It was a hit :)

Dress Shopping!!!

I am so excited to be heading to my old town of Atlanta this weekend to go wedding dress shopping!! My amazing cousin, Alex, put it all together for us and I am so excited that she is flying into town from New York City! It is going to be such a fun girls weekend.

Here is a few images I love:

Which one do you like best?? I already have my favorite. I've been told that many times the bride ends up with a dress that is totally different than any of the pictures she brings in. What was your experience??

fiancé

Matt and I have been together for 3.5 years and on our trip to France this June he became my fiancé. I wonder if in his well thought out plan, he thought about the word fiancé coming from the French language and felt it only appropriate to propose in France. Yeah, I don't think so. However, it was in his plan to propose in the most romantic city in the world and he put together an absolutely unbelievable engagement night. It was perfect. Here's the story:

It was our 2nd night in Paris and we had dinner reservations with the five of us on the trip (Me, Matt, Bryan, Erin and Mom) for 8pm. We had all agreed to meet in the bar of our hotel early to have some wine before we left for the restaurant. When we got down there, my Mom told us about these gardens that were right by our hotel and on our way to dinner, that the travel agent said we had to go see and get pictures at because they were gorgeous. Because we were a group of 5, we needed 2 cabs. It just so happened that Matt and I got in the first cab and our concierge had told the cab driver in French (which I wish I could say that I understood) that he was to stop at the Jardin du Luxembourg first and wait for us and then bring us to the restaurant for dinner. I was under the assumption the rest of the group was right behind us and joining us at the gardens as well. They were not. They were all in on it together. Matt and I walked into the gardens and as I turned to go pose for a picture of this gorgeous public garden with the Eiffel tower in the background, he was down on one knee asking to spend the rest of our lives together! We hugged and kissed and smiled and shed a few tears and I said YES and admired my beautiful ring for a long time! Then we got some great pictures...


Back in the cab, showing off the bling to Mr. Cabbie and headed to dinner to meet the rest of the group and celebrate!

He did so good :)

We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant called Maison Blanche that had tons of windows that looked out over the city and a great view of the Eiffel tower that lit up at night. Mom, Bryan & Erin had champagne waiting for us at the table for an Engagement Toast!

Picture with the Eiffel Tower in the background

We decided to continue our celebration beyond dinner and head over to the buddha-bar for some fancy cocktails.
Mint from my Mojito as a new hair piece
We then decided it was a Saturday night in Paris and we should hit the club scene. So we walked to the VIP Room and danced and celebrated and hung with midget superman.


Mom and I admiring the ringErin and I getting the dance floor started
Matt joined us on the dance floorCELEBRATING!!
The whole evening was perfect and I absolutely loved being able to celebrate with my family. It was very special to me that ALL my family actually had a hand in this occasion. My oldest brother, Brandon, was instrumental in actually helping Matt find the ring. Bryan secretly helped Matt scope out the perfect setting in Paris. My mom was the ring GUARD and couldn't let that thing out of her sight for the first 48 hrs in Paris and of course good ole' pops had to say YES when Matt asked for his permission to marry me!

We are so excited to begin planning the festivities and enjoy the next 9 months of being engaged! We are so happy and so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family and thank you to all that have already sent your well wishes.

Expert Insight

It's been months again since I have made a post and a few weeks ago my brother told me that I needed to write shorter posts so it would not feel like such a burden for me. I constantly feel like I need to play 'catch up' on the blog; but instead, I really need to make simple post with just a picture or two so that I will post more often!! And he's really smart...

So I am taking his advice.

Yesterday, my brother Brandon, launched his website {www.expertinsight.com} that he has been working towards for many months. I know it was a very exciting day for him and the rest of the family is so proud.

Expert Insight- The name really says it all:

"The idea is to bring this coaching model to everything." said Brandon Adams, 32 year-old founder and CEO of Expert Insight. {Bloomberg.com Interview: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-19/harvard-s-adams-enlists-nobel-economist-charging-5-000-for-hour-of-advice.html}

At Expert Insight, you have some of the top authors, economist, sports coaches, poker players, and investors right at your finger tips (with only more to come). This site is connecting the everyday Joe like you and me to some of the smartest, most-talented, successful people out there through video stream. The opportunities are endless and fabulous! Think rockstar, athlete,top chef, real estate mogul, fashion designer, reality TV star, interior decorator, super nanny, etc...

Who would you pay to speak with on Skype for one full hour?? Give me some ideas. Is it that celebrity you would kill to flirt with or is it the role model you have looked up to since you were a kid and aspire to be like?

Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics, said "I'd pay a lot of money to give my daughters the chance to video chat with Taylor Swift. I can't see any way that will happen other than Taylor Swift signing on with Expert Insight." (Bloomberg)

This article will tell you more about the site and quote some of the experts that Brandon has recruited to the site so far. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-19/harvard-s-adams-enlists-nobel-economist-charging-5-000-for-hour-of-advice.html

I am so excited to see where this goes! Bring me Lauren Conrad :)