Read My Lipstick

Sarah Palin is having a rally in Jeffersonville, Indiana tonight and we're going! I'm so pumped, I even bought a t-shirt!

Pumpkins are done!

So last week, (yes, behind in blog, blah blah) we finished up our pumpkins!! All three - one for Matt, me and Dixie! Here's the rundown...

I mean, can you really have too many pumpkin gut pictures. That's the "best part", right?

I never have been a huge fan of "getting my hands dirty"....

Even the mini-me has guts!

Dixie checking out "her" pumpkin... she wasn't too sure about it at first!

Then she was amazed by it!

And here it is! The final result of our hard work... Matt's Bat, Hope's Spider, and Dixie's paw!

Too bad we did this just a little too early and they are now all out by the trash full of mold... Oh well, it was fun and we learned our lesson for next year!

Dixie Gives Up on Auburn

What? I was bored...

Thursday Thoughts

So I was reading another blog and saw what I thought was a GREAT idea. Jennifer had "Celebrate Tuesday"... so I have decided to start Thursday Thoughts. I too will not commit to doing this once a week... I can only do so much, you know...

I was just thinking this morning, it's so much easier to be in a good mood than a bad one. You just feel better! So here's what I'm thankful for today...

• I love this Fall weather in Kentucky right now. It's 43 degrees outside and I have a couple windows cracked open in the apartment. It's 63 inside! I LOVE it!
• The cooler weather also means Dixie get to wear her "sweaters" that she loves so much. I love watching her stick her neck out and hold up her paws to get dressed!
• Waking up at 6am to work out and being excited about it!
• The Chi hairdryer - Mama and Brooke gave it to my for my birthday. As a matter of fact, I love it so much, you may see it in a "happy" later.
• Sugarland concert on Saturday with my husband!
• Mama, Brooke, and Grandmama coming for a "surprise" birthday visit to Kentucky! Louisville Slugger Museum, Kentucky Hot Browns and Churchill Downs, here we come!

My Birthday Presents!

So, it's my birthday.... yea! When I got up this morning, Matt and Dixie were sitting in the living room waiting for me with presents from both of them sitting on the coffee table. Matt's taking me to see my FAVORITE band, Sugarland, on Saturday! I love them so much! He's also made reservations for us at PF Chang's - yumm yumm! So Matt asked a couple weeks ago what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday, so I told him a cookie cake - with LOTS of white icing! - thinking it would be something easy he could just order from the Cookie Company (and I do love them too!). But no, he decided to bake a double doozie white chocolate macadamia nut cookie cake - with lots of white icing! And let me tell you, folks, it's delish! And how about the Republican napkins and the cute dog hats? Dixie has to be involved in any way possible, you know...

So here was my present from Dixie. I LOVE it! Matt had been spending alot of time doing random things over the past couple weeks... now I see what it was! I've recently decided I'm gonna start scrapbooking. So I've been telling Matt everything I've been learning, the places to get things in Louisville, etc. And ladies, he was LISTENING! So with all of his new found knowledge, he decided that he would create a scrapbook calendar for me from Dixie's perspective... I just HAD to share the whole thing with everyone so you can know how amazing my husband is! I laughed and cried my eyeballs out at the same time!

Here is January.... please note the pictures form three paws! The G in the middle is baseballs on the grass. And yes, we did have Dixie in some of our engagement pics - she's part of the family!

February - You may recognize the peanut butter M&Ms from my "happies". If you look closely, they are now M,H&Ds (Matt, Hope & Dixie). The green heart is from the when he had the grounds crew guys cut "M heart H" in the outfield! The towel is from our honeymoon in Jamaica and the baseballs are from our rehearsal dinner!

March - I love the one of Dixie "driving" Matt's car... and you can't see it very well, but the pic up top with Dixie's tongue hanging out is priceless! And the road signs are all the states we go through on our journeys to and from each of our homes!

April - Opening Day of baseball season! The bats are what we had people sign at the wedding! And the Dixie on the right is what she looks like after a bath! So funny...

May - The month of Derby! In case you don't know, I love Barbaro. The race when he got hurt was the first horse race I had ever seen... and I haven't gotten over it yet! Here's Dixie in her racing garb...

June - this just cracks me up. My favorite is how Dixie's teeth stick out on the left on one and the right on the other. The just don't fit in there the way they're supposed to all the time!

July - These are Dixie's "I've just been groomed, I'm exhausted, and I have stupid bows in my hair" pics. So funny....

August - Matt's favorite. Can you guess why? That's all I'm going to say...

September - Another one of Matt's faves. This is a golf ball on a tee we gave the guys when they went golfing before the wedding. Then there's all of my teams logos and then the logos of the teams Troy plays next year...

October - You can't see it, but the pic on the left is one of my favorites. One day I was packing up the car to leave for a work trip and Dixie was sad. She used her paw to push down the blinds so she could see me. I cried....

November - our anniversary. This is one of my favorite pages!! Dixie couldn't come to the wedding, but Matt managed to get her in the middle of things! She's walking up the road with us, looking at the cake and driving off to go to our honeymoon! Love it!

December - Dixie even got her hand in our ring picture from the wedding! Not to mention her talent of giving Matt "the rock".... that one is real.

So there you have it! The coolest birthday present ever....

Vote... Republican!

Or this fierce dog will come after you!

Happy #5

Just look at the faces on EVERYONE! Even I've got the eyebrow action going. But the ladies in the background... oh, and the moms... love it!
I have this picture posted on my bulletin board (yes, next to the Q-Tip - see Happy #2) just because it brings a smile to my face!

Pumpkin Carving - Day 1

So, Matt and I went to this cool little pumpkin "stand" a few days ago - ok like a week and and a half ago. And we got two pumpkins. One for us and one for Dixie. And then we went to Kroger and they had these adorable little mini-me pumpkins. So Matt decided that we needed to get one of those for her instead and the others could be his and mine. So here's what our cute little pumpkin family looked like...

Last night, we decided... it was time. The carving had to begin! So, having the best husband in the world, he suggested that we do mine first. Although now, I'm wondering if MAYBE it wasn't because we needed to do trial and error first? I don't know... So here's some picks of the events of the evening. Enjoy!

Matt hard at work cleaning out the guts!

Such attention to detail! Although I do have to say that he just did the first little part and I finished it off.... It was my pumpkin and my responsibility, after all! Matt did check on me occassionally, however, by asking, "How ya doin', pumpkin?" Gotta love him, really.

And there we have it - Hope's jack-o-lantern. It's a spider - duh?! So yeah, I have some cleaning up to do still, but I'll get there.

I also roasted the seeds. I still can't figure out how to eat them, but I do like the little mixture I baked them up in - 1 tbsp EVOO, 1tbsp salt, 1tbsp butter. At least the outside of them tastes good!

And I couldn't resist... Here's what they looked like pre-baked. :-)

More to come on the Gallant's Get Ready for Halloween....

Salad

For those of you who know me... you know this is huge.

I just thought I would share with you that I have actually had a salad for lunch like 5 days straight. No Kidding!!

I still don't like lettuce - don't get me wrong! However, I have discovered spinach. And it makes an awesome salad!

Now you know...

Roomie's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ash! I wish we could share it over some Crowe's Chicken! :-)

A Good Day

So, it was a good day.

• Dixie got a bath - see pics below
• We met Rick Pitino
• We went to the flea market
• We got our pumpkins for Halloween
• I read alot - I'm addicted to the Twilight series like all the teenagers
• I did some baking.
• Matt made his delicious kabobs - yummo!
• Now I'm having a glass of wine...

So, this is how Dixie dries herself off after she's had a bath. She looks like a rabid dog, sprinting from one end of the room to the other, then going in circles until everyone is dizzy.

Funny, huh?

I thought this was cute. Matt took this picture of Dixie giving him "The Rock."

Payday!

Happy #4

I'm talkin' about two different kinds here. Sure everyone loves when their pay day comes along... but have you ever had a Payday candy bar? They're awesome.

And here's a little secret recipe...

1 candy corn

2 peanuts

Put in mouth at same time. Chew. It taste exactly like a Payday candy bar.

Enjoy.

Peanut Butter M & Ms

Happy #3


It's the small things in life.... like the size of an M&M... a peanut butter one.


They have helped get me through alot -
Wedding planning (thanks, Amber!)
Headaches
Travels
Stress
Long waits
A need for Halloween decor for my end table


No, seriously, look at those pretty colors! Don't worry, they're not just sitting on the table. I put them in a bowl with candy corn!


I love them.

You will too when you try 'em.

QTip

AKA - Happy #2


So, if you know me at all, you know I tend to stress out. Whatever...

One thing that I have noticed that causes this -at least in the work arena- is that I take everything on personally. I have to learn that sometimes, business is business and sometimes things are just out of my control!


We had a cheesey speaker come and talk with us a while back with work to tell us how to communicate with each other, with clients, with people in general, yada yada... So, the other day when I was stressed to the max about work mess, I suddenly had a vision of this woman standing in front of us holding a framed QTip.

"She's nutso," I thought.

She said you gotta -
Quit
Taking
It
Personally

She's right. So, here's my QTip... even though it's not in a frame.


It works...

Happy Birthday, my Husband!

Actually, Matt's birthday was October 1st! But I'm slacking on the blog updates...

I tried to stretch his bday out as much as possible. We started the morning by opening his present... a Wii!! I don't think he was expecting it, but I don't know for sure. He loved it. He immediately wanted to go buy some more games, but I suggested maybe he should just rent and try them out before buying anything. Thank goodness, because as soon as he left, the mail man came by with the Tiger Woods Golf game from Brooke and Mama! So needless to say, he has played that non-stop. He's even created a Wii version of himself on that game.. it's pretty funny. Complete with "soul patch" and everything. I'll try to get a picture of that to put on here too!

He requested a red, white and blue yellow and carrot cake... yeah... so that's what he got! It was a little complicated for me to figure out how to accomplish that at first, but this was the end result. And even though it may look funky, it was delicious! So that's how we celebrated mid-day birthday.

Later that evening, we went and hung out with some of his Louisville Bats work buddies and then we went to his favorite restaurant, Outback, for dinner.


And then came home for more Wii!

It was a good day...