24

I am another year older! I turned 24 this past Tuesday and had a fun birthday week!

Ben just happened to be off on my birthday, so we got to hang out all day! We started off the day by going to Arrington Vineyards...a local winery owned by Kix Brooks. It is beautiful!

We brought a picnic lunch, bought a bottle of their own wine, and enjoyed the scenery! (and the ridiculous heat...)
We ate at Cheesecake Factory for dinner...my first experience there. Yum!! Lauren Conrad happened to be next store doing her book signing so there were tons of squealy teenage girls:)

Friday night was my celebration with friends. Mary, Kristy, and I went to SATCO for dinner in Nashville and then headed to the Flying Saucer.

We always have fun together...thanks for a good birthday finale, girls!

Georgia

I went on a short shopping excursion (seriously, it truly was an excursion through the backwoods of North GA) with the girls that I work with to Georgia! We went to the outlets and then the Mall of Georgia. I have never actually shopped til I dropped...until this trip. We had so much fun! I feel bad for anyone that had to sleep in the hotel room next to us.

Here is the only normal picture I got of the group..chowing down at Provino's--yum!

Johnell hides in a cocoon.

Meet Mary. She as a weird fascination with tiny tents...ya know, the ones they put out for display? This was her dream come true!!

No one on the corner has swagger like Kristy..

camping?

It was a fun trip!

I also took my OWN stitches out yesterday! I just couldn't let Ben do it..I was way too nervous. Just call me Dr. Laura!

bloody fantastic!

Warning: These birds are here just to ease you into the next pictures. They are cute & fluffy...the other pics are not. If you don't like blood, seeeee ya! You won't want to read this entry.

Supper Club with the girls I work with was at my house last night. I was making enchiladas, so naturally I also had to make guacamole. Well, I am cutting the avocado with a very sharp knife when the knife slips. It sliced two of fingers...one was ok, the other was a huge bloody mess. I am hysterical so I call Ben who is on his way home from work. He arrives to see my finger is still attached (from the phone call he probably thought I chopped my whole arm off) but bleeding a ridiculous amount. (Mary took the next picture...this was 5 hours after "the slice" happened. STILL bleeding)

So apparently I'm not a good clotter. Ben bandaged me up so I wouldn't get blood all over the house, the girls came over and ate, and at 9:30 I took my bandage off. Yep, you guessed it, still bleeding. Soooo, I got to spend a couple of hours in the ER last night!

Let me just say that I do not suggest that anyone ever get a shot in their finger. OUCH. I hate needles to begin with...but seriously, that was the worst part. My finger is actually still completely numb. Anywho, the nice ER lady sewed me up (ick) while Ben watched excitedly (even more ick) and I felt quite queasy.

VOILA! Here is my now useless left index finger. I am never slicing an avocado again. Ever.

7 things

I saw this on another blog...and I like sharing really random facts about yours truly:)

7 Things about me...

1. My nickname has been LoMo since middle school & it has carried on with me to this day. It has now been tweaked a little bit to Loma since my last name is different now:)

2. I have always wanted land. I would love to have a llama, mini horse, and some alpacas. Seriously.

3. The first graders I worked with in Batesville, MS taught me more about life than I taught them. I will always remember them.

4. My first big purchase was Jack. I walked into a pet store and he was sitting in a kennel all but himself. It was love at first sight. He was the best spur of the moment decision I have ever made!

5. I had SO much fun at our wedding. I am actually kind of sad that we don't get to do it again this summer! It was great having all of our friends and family in one room together celebrating with us! I would seriously get married every summer if I could:) haha

6. I pass out easily when I get overheated. I've passed out in showers, on the tennis court, laying out...i'm a wimp in the heat.

7. When I hear songs, they always remind me of specific moments in time. For example, Dashboard Confessional "Screaming Infidelties" reminds me being home the summer after my freshman year of college and driving around with my girls with the windows down.

dog days

I had 3 pups all to myself last night and today...so we decided to have a little fun. It was beautiful here, so I knew I wanted to get out my chair & book and catch some rays.

The furbabies played outside while I watered my flowers...so when they came in and were obviously very hot, they of course got pupcream! Yes. That is correct. We buy dog ice cream at Publix when we go grocery shopping. It is cheese/peanut butter flavor--kinda makes me gag thinking about it.

Of course, the next thing we did was lay out!
And we swam (well, Huddy swam--other dogs, not so much...

And we wrestled...(look how ferorcious my little girl looks!)

Ferocious to sweet & innocent in about 5 seconds. I know, she is very cute!

To end the day, these 2 decided to snuggle.

I have a feeling the lounge chair + doggie pool will be occurring frequently this summer!

Menu Planning Monday

Monday & Thursday I will be on my own...so I'll scrounge around the pantry for myself:)

Tuesday: Lemon Chicken Pasta
Wednesday: Thai chicken stir-fry w/ this easy peanut sauce...yum! I don't add the chili oil...just a pinch of red pepper flakes to give it a little kick. It's so good!
Friday: Chicken, bean, & cheese quesadillas

Today's agenda: walking in this ridiculous heat, doing the shred, laundry, and watching the Bachelorette with Mary! I am hoping the creepy foot fetish guy will say "SEE YA" tonight!!