18 (almost 19) YEARS LATE

So I may have missed the boat that sailed away many many moons ago. But I have a new obsession.

It all started with my love for Tori and Dean and their show on Oxygen or WE or whatever channel it is. I really started to like Tori Spelling, then I read her book Stori Telling. Which I loved. It was so interesting. In the book she talks about her years on 90210 and I was intrigued. Then the other day I caught my VERY FIST EPISODE OF 90210! I am hooked. Now I have set my Tivo to record the show anytime it comes on.

But I was happy to find out that I have started watching them on Soapnet right at the time that they started the whole series over again. So I am on Season One right now. My friend Susan at work loved the show when it was on originally so everyday I watch my two episodes on tivo and then I go to work and we talk about the episodes. So much fun!

I am ready for it to be less about Brenda and Brandon and more about everyone else. I want more Donna and Kellye! Don't worry I already know about some of the things that will happen. I wonder if I will care anything about the new 90210.

SHE'S GETTING MARRIED!

So in all the commotion with my sister I have not had time to blog about my fun weekend. Friday night, Kenny and I just ordered out Chinese and watched Cassandra's Dream. I had never heard of it but it had Collin Farell and Ewan McGregor in it. Everyone had very thick British accents but I still thought it was an okay movie. Please know that I have nothing against British accents, I actually love them, they are just hard for me to understand when I am watching a movie.

Saturday morning I went to a wedding shower for Lauren and Kenny went to play golf. Then that night was Lauren's bachelorette party. I hope Lauren does not mind but I have to show yall her adorable outfit her sister got her. When they started this gown was floor length but they cut it off and it was very Madonna-ish. She looked so cute!

So once they Lauren got all dolled up we went to Molly Fontaine's in the Victorian Village. This was my first time to go there and it is such an amazing old house and the food and the mojitos were soooo good! I cannot wait to go back. I would definitely recommend this place for a girls night out. Plus our waiters were extremely accommodating to our big group.

After eating we headed to Beale of course. We went to the Red Rooster which a fairly new bar that I had never been to and then a few other places. At the end of the night we headed for Raifords but after thinking about it for a while and waiting to get in we decided we were tired and we headed home. It was a fun night and I can't wait to get to the beach for Lauren and Lowes wedding!

On Sunday, Kenny and I slept late and then this is what my house looked like most of the day.Yes girls, it is that time again.....fantasy baseball is not even over yet and we hosted the fantasy football draft on Sunday. How is it already time for football!!! Once the draft was over we just relaxed and watched the closing cermonies for the Olympics.

I miss the Olympics.

SAY A PRAYER

UPDATE: My sister is out of surgery. The surgery revealed that her liver was leaking bile into her body. So we are very lucky she had not returned to Oxford for school. She will be in a lot of pain and the recovery will be long. We do not know anything about school yet so pleae continue to keep her in your prayers!

I need everyone to keep my sister in your prayers for the next few days. As I am writing this she is in surgery because of complications from a surgery on her gallbladder a week and a half ago. She has been in a lot of pain and was not recuperating well from the surgery. They diagnosed her with pneumonia yesterday but today when she and my mom wen to the ER they admitted her and decided to do exploratory surgery. I am sure everything will be okay but she was supposed to return to Oxford for the start of fall semester tomorrow. She will most likely be in the hospital this whole week. I know she is really worried about missing school so please pray that everything goes well with her surgery and that everything gets worked out with school.

SO OVER IT!

I am going to apologize before hand if this post seems whiny or like I have a bad attitude but here are some things that I am SO OVER!

Chinese Gymnasts- Yes they are very talented but I am more than a little irked that they are allowed to fall on their vault landings, make errors on the uneven bars, balance checks galore on the beam and they still continue to get high scores, thus kicking our girls who have not made the same mistakes off the medal stand. Nastia was robbed, robbed I tell you the other night on the uneven bars. She deserved that Gold! And then don't even get me started on poor Alicia not getting the Bronze for the Vault competition, despite that she did not fall on BOTH of her landings. I understand the China girls have a home team advantage, but come on!

I can't believe that I am saying this but I am soooo over The Hills. I have loved this reality show from the beginning. I was a devoted fan to Laguna Beach and then Lauren moved to LA and it was so interesting to see a girl my age(somewhat) making it in a new city. But now I cannot stand how staged and contrived this show is. And can I just say that I miss the old Heidi. I miss the girl that was fun, and naive and had not had thousand of dollars in plastic surgery. Remember when she looked like this:

She was so cute and so natural!









So....I never thought this would be an issue when I got married but.....I am so sick of being called the wrong name. I am blessed to have two first names as my name. Lacey is a common first name, and Mallory while not so common is a first name too. People call me Lacey all the frickin time. And sometimes it does not bother me. But at work when people send me emails demanding something as a rush and cannot even bother to call me by the right name I get really really irritated!

And one more thing I can already tell I will be over is moving. Just thinking about preparing for the move gives me a knot in my stomach!

WEEKENDS CAN DO WONDERS

Well, after a nice relaxing birthday weekend, I feel like my life is back to normal after last week, which is definitely a good thing.

Friday night Kenny and I went to eat Mexican, came home got into comfy clothes and nestled down to watch some Olympics. We did not watch any of it. We were both asleep on the couch by 9:00. We are so old. We slept in the den until 2:00 am then got up and went to bed. Watched the Phelps race that we had missed due to our early bedtime and went back to sleep. Is it sad to say that it was the perfect Friday night. We were just so exhausted from the week.

Saturday morning we woke up and Kenny was so anxious to give me my present. He got me a new ipod! I was so excited.I had told him not to get me anything else. We had already bought Orpheum season tickets and that was plenty. But he knew I had been wanting an ipod big enough to have ALL of my music in one place. I cannot stop playing with it. I love it! Such a sweet husband. Saturday afternoon, we got out and did a little shopping and then went to dinner and a movie. It was the perfect low key birthday evening. Exactly what I wanted.

Sunday, we went and ate brunch at Blue Plate(love that place) and then lazed around all day. The weather was so nice and it was sooo relaxing. Susan and Andrew came over and brought some birthday cupcakes(my fave; yellow cake, chocolate frosting) and we grilled hot dogs and watched more Olympics. I told you I was a junkie.

Now it is Monday and I feel like my head is screwed back on. Hope it stays that way.

PARDON MY ABSCENCE

This week has been one of the craziest weeks of my married life. I guess the big thing is.........we put in an offer on a house in East Memphis! Which we had no idea that we were going to do. We went to look at some houses on Sunday and just loved one and felt like we needed to make an offer. So all this week we have been hammering out the details of buying this adorable house. Things are going really well and we are really close to having everything squared away. If all goes well we will close in a few weeks. So exciting. I never would have thought that a week ago we would be almost home owners. Wish us luck!

On top of dealing with buying a house every day this week, my department has been extremely short handed at work and things have been crazy crazy busy, my sister had surgery yesterday, there was a death in the family, and I turn a quarter century old tomorrow. I feel old! Annnnd.....I have been staying up till midnight every night to watch the Olympics so I am exhausted.

But it is Friday, and things have smoothed out. I am ready to do watch the Olympics and do absolutely nothing all weekend. Except maybe go look at my soon to be house tonight.

I'M AN OLYMPIC JUNKIE

Hi, my name is Mallory and I am an Olympic Junkie. I cannot tear myself away from the Olympic coverage in fear that I will miss some magical moment. Friday night Kenny and I decided to stay in. I cooked dinner and we watched the Opening Ceremonies. I thought the ceremony was amazing. My favorite part was the part with all the different boxes that the guys were standing under and they moved them to look like the sea and all kinds of different things. But really everything they did was so good.

Saturday morning, I had a provisional retreat with Junior League. It was at a place called Bridges. I went into this day long retreat not knowing a single person that was going to be there, but I ended up having a lot of fun. We did some team building exercises, a high ropes course, and rock climbing. It was a very full day. I was very proud of myself because I did the high ropes course. I never do these things because I am so scared of heights. I also got to meet a lot of girls that will be in my provisional group. I am looking forward to getting to know them better. New friends....snaps! After the retreat I came home and watched the Olympics and tried to catch up on what I missed.

Saturday night, Kenny and I went for Sushi with Joe and Tracy. It was delish, and afterwards we staked out a good people watching station from a bar balcony over Beale Street. You see it is Elvis Week here in Memphis and all these people come to Memphis from all over the world for Elvis week.(including the crazies) So we got some good people watching in. It was fun!

Sunday morning, we watched the movie Stop Loss with Ryan Phillipe. It is about Iraqi soldiers who have served their duty and then have to go back to war against their will. I was unaware that this happens and I actually learned a lot from the movie.(as much as you can learn from a movie) It was just an okay movie though, plus this was the movie that Ryan cheated on Reese Witherspoon with his co-star who he is now engages to; Abbi Cornish. I have a low tolerance for cheaters. Anyway, the rest of the day we watched the Olympics and then went to look at some houses.

That night I was so happy to be able to watch live the men's relay in swimming. Did anyone else catch that? What a comeback? That is why I can't make myself stop watching the coverage. What if you miss a moment like that. Kenny and I were yelling at the television! It was a great moment for the USA! I can't wait for more gymnastics, track and field, diving and so much more.

CUTE STATIONERY DESIGNS

So my good friend, Susan, at work is an amazing graphic artist. She is really creative and besides working with me she has her own stationary company. It is called JPress Designs. She draws all of her designs and also does screen printing. She actually helped me design my Christmas card this past year and I have seen her do some really cute Save the Dates and invitations.

Anyway, she has entered a design challenge on the stationery website Minted. Anyone who wants to enter takes inspiration from a short paragraph from each real life couple about what their wedding and honeymoon was like, and then designs a piece for them. The type of piece is chosen by the website. For instance, the one Susan entered is a Thank You note for the newlyweds. You can enter as many time as you like with different designs. Here are some examples of her entries! The couples went to Greece and Italy on their honeymoons and so a lot of her designs reflect that in some way.

I love her stuff. And I promise I am not being biased when I say I think she is one of the best designers that has submitted her stuff. See for yourself, click this link  to see some of the entries. And don't forget to vote for Susan's designs. Leave her some comments if you would like!

MAN FRIENDLY, AND NOT SO MUCH

Last night I made this really easy casserole that Kenny loved. I was craving something tasty, comforting, and easy. I already had the chicken in the fridge so I ran to the store to pick up the rest of the stuff. One thing I would change is I would use low sodium stuffing and cream of chicken soup. The dish was a little salty. I just served it with some steamed broccoli Anyway here is the recipe, I will definitely be making this again, it was a hit!

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 Can of Cream of Chicken Soup
8-12 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 8 oz. pkg of Boxed stuffing (so processed, but so good)
Milk
Butter

Butter the bottom of a 13"X9" baking dish. Lay uncooked chicken breasts on the bottom of the dish. Mix soup with 1/3 can of milk. Pour over chicken, sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Make stuffing according to package directions. Place on top of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes.

And so the not so man friendly thing....last night there was nothing on television and we had gotten The Other Boleyn Girl in the mail. I wanted to watch it and Kenny was sweet enough to oblige. As I got more and more into it, Kenny managed to find some other things to do.

I have to say I really really loved this movie. I was afraid it was going to be slow and I cannot stand slow movies. But this movie was actually very past paced. It was so full of scandal and suspense. I enjoyed Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman and was pleased that it was a little history lesson too.

All in all it was a good night!

WHY NOT?

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes, I was named after the girl from Family Ties. My sister was given her middle name Melinda from our great grandmother. Problem is....we went to see our great grandmother's grave one time and her name was not Melinda it was Belinda. Funny but sad.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I cry a lot. I dunno.....

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Sometimes, people always comment on how neat my handwriting is for someone who is left handed.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Oscar Meyer Rotisserie Style Chicken Breast (deli slices). It is all that I buy.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No, not yet. But hopefully not to too far in the future (nobody get excited, still a couple a years)

6.IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I'd like to think so.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? YES YES YES. I get this from my dad. Sometimes people take it the wrong way. I have to be careful.

8.. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? No I do not. I had them out my freshman year of college. It totally changed my health. I never get sick anymore BUT.....it was the worst experience of my life. I lost 11 pounds in one week and was in enormous pain!

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I pretend that I could bungee jump but I am terrified of heights, if I was even able to get up to the ledge I would probably freak out and they would have to lower me back down.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? l love all cereal. But some of my faves are Oatmeal Squares, Cracklin Oat Bran, and Lucky Charms. I save the marshmallows for last.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nope

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? No, ask anyone that has ever helped me move.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? I just found the best Ben & Jerry's flavor. Half baked. It has cookie dough and fudge brownies

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? I really have the ability to take in a lot of things when I first meet people. I think I always notice what they are wearing though. That is really shallow.

15. RED OR PINK? Pink I guess. I like green better

16. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I am a good cook and I like the color of my eyes.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My college days. You don't realize how stressful being a grown up can be until you are in the real world. And my grandfather.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Grey pants, Black peep toe pumps. Meow!

20.WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Honey Nut Shredded Wheat dry out of the box at my desk.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Nothing, have not plugged my Ipod up today.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Macaroni and cheese. That crayon always made me hungry.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Sharpies, Laundry detergent, Pine Sol, Brownies baking,

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Kenny about going to look at a house tonight. I wonder if we will like it.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? College football. I am kind of jazzed about the Olympics starting thought. I like the swimming, diving, and gymnastic events.

27. HAIR COLOR? Naturally blond (with a little help)

28. EYE COLOR? Light blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No,I have really good eye sight.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Re-stuffed potatoes, steak, my mom's chicken enchiladas, any dip, and CHEESE!

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I love both. But lately scary movies have been scarier to Kenny and me. I think its a age thing.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Like Mother, Like Daughter on Lifetime. It was good.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? White

34. FAVORITE SEASON? Spring, I get to break out all my cute dresses.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Creme Brulee, bread pudding (No chocolate!)

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?Stori Telling by Tori Spelling. It is a easy read and a good book.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? An image of the building I work in.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? Okay, gasp, I did not watch any television last night. Somebody from Kenny's work took us to dinner at Encore. It was soooooo delicious. It was awesome.

42. FAVORITE SOUND? A babbling brook.

43.. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?St. Lucia for our honeymoon.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Knowing a little bit about a whole lot of things. I can keep a conversation with anyone. I think that is a huge talent.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Hattiesburg, MS


TAG
Barbequed Peaches
Caren
Crystal Drane
Anyone else who wants to do this. It was kind of long!

DAVE MATHEWS AT AUTOZONE PARK

So the Dave Mathews Band was kind enough to grace Memphis with their presence this weekend, along with Willie Nelson. Kenny and I had been looking forward to this concert for a long time. So we decided to host a little pre-concert soiree at our place downtown. I really just wanted the excuse to try out some new dip recipes.

So everyone came over for some cocktails and snacks and then we headed over to Autozone Park for the concert. And boy was it HOT! I mean the kind of hot that you can hardly breathe because you are inhaling really hot air. But we did not let it ruin our good time. (but please excuse the sweatiness in some of the pictures)

Dave put on a great show and pulled out some interesting covers. He played Burning Down the House, and Sledgehammer, along with some of his well known songs like Crash, Two Step, Grave Digger, and Ants Marching. A good time was had by all, even though someone got a little sleepy.

After the concert, we were a little scared of going to Beale considering the crowd was ginormous, not to mention Pike's National Convention was in town this weekend. So we walked down main and grabbed some late night food and went to bed.

Sunday, Kenny and I napped all day ( I watched four lifetime movies) and got Chinese take out for dinner. It was a perfect Sunday.

GOOD MOVIES, FOOD AND COMPANY

Kenny and I have been busy hitting up the theatres for the latest movies. Wednesday night, we went on a triple date. Mollie, Wilson, Joe and Tracy, Kenny and me went and to dinner and then went to see Dark Knight. This was the first Batman movie I have ever seen andI had heard and read how good this movie was. I could not wait to see Heath Ledger. It is no exaggeration that his performance was absolutely stellar. It actually makes me really sad because this was definitely the role that would of shot his stardom through the roof, and he is gone. His portrayal as the Joker is very scary and convincing. It doesn't even really look like him.

I also enjoyed Christian Bale as Batman. I have loved Christian Bale since I was younger. I loved him in the Newsies(one of my favorite movies of all times) and Little Women. Maggie Gyllenhaal was also good. Go see this movie!

Last night Susan and I went to Mexican where we ate two things of cheese dip and dessert. We were very pleased with ourselves. Afterwards we went to see Mama Mia.Being a lover of all musicals I could not wait to see it. It was so cute. I love Amanda Seyfried. She is in Big Love a show on HBO that I watch. But lordy has she lost so much weight. She was tiny. And can I just say that I am obsessed with her hair in this movie. It truly made me want to move to Greece and get extensions. This movie is very tongue in cheek and if you go in knowing it is going to be silly, you will love it!