what i did today

Thursday Random

April 8, 2010 by Amy 1 Comment

Today was a good day. I like good days. Let’s make a list.

I found this new iPhone camera Hipstamatic and it rocks! Yes? Yes!

I had a really good design session at work today. I love taking an issue and trying to figure out all the moving parts and all the nitty gritty details to get the problem solved. I was kind of sad when my two hour meeting was over. #geek
I scored a complimentary copy of Plan B byPete Wilson from BookSneeze to review. I already have it pre-ordered but I’m so excited to get it early! Look for a giveaway coming up!
iPhone announced some great stuff today for the new OS coming out in June, namely multitasking and folders. I really hope my still-broken iPhone holds out until June. Unfortunately these new features won’t work on a 3G phone, you have to have the 3GS.
The fam took a nice walk at lunch today. I love walking with them!
I bought meet and greet tickets to see Danny Gokey when he opens for Tim McGraw in Charlotte in July.
I made yummy crockpot lasagna. Not a PDub recipe, but off of her Tasty Kitchen site she runs where others can submit their own recipes. It was so easy and done in 2.5 hrs. Perfect while we were gone to gymnastics tonight.
I think we have our new recliner sold which rocks!
I started participating tonight in MoneySavingMom.com’s Clear Out the Clutter Challenge tonight. I cleared out our hall closet, living room cabinet and pantry. I have two big stacks of blankets and jackets, two garbage bags to throw away and 3 grocery bags of stuff to giveaway. Score!
Vampire Diaries was SO amazing tonight. Probably my favorite episode yet and the best part is the previews for next week look even better!

It’s the little things!

Crowder’s Mountain Part Deux

April 5, 2010 by Amy 8 Comments

Never say never. When will I learn? 14 years ago, my family, Scott and my uncle and aunt climbed Crowder’s Mountain. It’s a pretty short hike overall, only 2.8 miles up the mountain.

But last time it was a HIKE and I said I’d never do it again. Here’s my scrapbook page from back in the day. It’s like old-school blogging!

I was weeks away from graduating high school. Love that perm, doncha?

Well, Saturday we took to the mountain again, with 4 more people and 2 more dogs in tow.

I was most worried about Lexi who gets tired after about 2.5 minutes walking through the mall. And indeed, she was pulled

And carried

And carried some more

But she also did a lot on her own

So momma is proud! I didn’t even blame her when she passed out minutes after hitting the road.

Cause I was trying to do the same thing

But Emma? Emma bounced, ran, skipped up the mountain. She was proud that no one had to carry her and wanted to do it again and we hadn’t even finished yet.

Clearly she had a lot of energy left over on the way home

Scott of course made it up like a park ranger. This is after he worked 12 hours Friday night with only 4.5 hours of sleep Saturday morning.

No fear at the top, just swinging his legs over the edge. But that’s why I love him.

As for me, I enjoyed being with my girls

Taking pictures for everyone to remember

And challenging myself. It’s amazing how much easier (not easy!) it was since my C25K training.

And being so dang proud of the four of us at the top knowing that the last time we were there, we were just two kids in love with a bunch of dreams.

And so happy to share these moments with all my family

And let’s not wait another 14 years…I can barely handle the thought of Emma and Lexi being in college then…

There were lots more stories from that day (tailgating on Glenn’s truck, pulling dogs, Mom’s hurt ankle, too.much.pollen.)…check out more pictures here and here.

For those around last summer, you may remember some renovations we did, namely in the kitchen and bathroom. There were still a few items that were outstanding from the original plan when Sally came to visit. We finally scratched one more off the list this weekend.

If you remember, the living room looked like this:

We were supposed to add some scones on either side of the TV.

I had picked those out but after we really strapped down on our finances, I just couldn’t make myself fork out a few hundred dollars for them. This weekend Scott stumbled upon some wireless sconces in HomeGoods. I was very hesitant as they looked a bit small and wondered about their quality but you know? For $40 for both of them AND we didn’t have to worry about wires, I’m really happy.

I think the color is perfect and it’s very nice when it’s night time. It feels very movie theater-ish!

And while we’re at it, can we please mourn the loss of a pair of these really cool lamps?

I bought a set from HomeGoods to go in my bedroom but it just didn’t work out right and I returned them last night. They look so cool lit up. We even had people stopping us through the store asking if there were more. They did have a teal/aqua set as well so check your local store if you’re interested!

Daily Peek: Needles, Tornadoes and Grocery Stores

March 29, 2010 by Amy 4 Comments

(the girls are sitting by the road watching for a neighbor’s lost dog. don’t worry, the road was not busy and they aren’t quite as close as it looks.)

Honestly today was a pretty crappy door day. See? I just typed door instead of day. That doesn’t make one bit of sense. I worked until 1:30 last night, still had issues this morning, had to get up early to get to the doctor for blood work, got another shot, had a bad coupon experience at Harris Teeter, had an issue on my Danny site, blah, blah, blah…there was more but I’m just tired of hearing myself complain.

I did end the day with a little laugh. Our conversations at bedtime can be pretty random. Usually one of the girls say “how did we get on this topic”? Here was one such conversation that had me giggling. Maybe just because today was so bad.

Me: What’s the sound?
Emma: An airplane
Lexi: What would happen if a plane landed in our neighborhood
Me: It wouldn’t be good
Emma: The wings would hit the houses
Lexi: …and there would be no houses. It’d be like the tornado in Africa
*pause*
Emma: It wasn’t even in Africa, it was in Haiti
Me: It wasn’t even a tornado, it was a hurricane.
*pausing knowing that’s not right but my brain? is fried.*
Me: I mean it was an earthquake
Lexi: earthquick
Me: it’s an earth QUAKE
Lexi: earthquick.
Me: quake
Lexi: earthquick earthquick earthquick.
Me: whatever
Lexi: When are we going back to Earth Fare?

I love how Lexi’s brain works.

Hope your Monday treated you well. Bring on Tuesday for me!

Weekend in Pictures

March 28, 2010 by Amy 8 Comments

We visited Glencairn Gardens just because we didn’t want to go home. Found some beautiful flowers. Saw a couple taking wedding portraits. Planted some flowers in the yard. Did some shopping. Decorated for Easter. Went to church.

Good times.

Weekend Recap

March 22, 2010 by Amy Leave a Comment

I feel like one of those times where I have so much to say, I get bogged down and don’t say anything at all. You know what that means? Bullet-point time!

Friday I took my girls and my niece on a little nearby trail for a walk (and a little run). We saw a beaver hut/house/thing, some turtles and ducks. It was the first really, really nice day of the year with Spring only one day away. Besides that, there wasn’t anything special to it. It was just really good to get out with the girls and enjoy nature together. One of my favorite moments from the weekend.
Also, on the way to the trail, I let Emma sit in the front seat. Legally, she’s been allowed to for over a year but of course Scott never wanted to. We only went about 2 miles from home but she LOVED sitting in the front. Obvs, I mean, didn’t we all love getting to sit in the front? Even Lexi was really happy for her instead of showing any jealousy at all!
I blogged about most of Saturday spent at the zoo.
New Moon came out on DVD this weekend. For all Twilighters, do not skip the extras. They are fantastic.
When it came time for my segment on Suze Orman Saturday night, I kinda wished I’d never said anything about it at all. To be honest, I was so embarrassed to have our financial status out in the open and felt a little silly talking about a trip to go see celebrities. I was watching New Moon DVD when it came on and I didn’t turn it off. Not because I was so engrossed with it, but I just wanted to ignore Suze altogether! I almost missed seeing it live. I guess there’s no burying your head in the sand when you’ve committed to go on national television. On the other hand, it was fun to do and I’m proud Suze Orman of all people told us we were in a good spot financially. Little did she know we had our taxes done an hour after I talked to her. Ouch!
Sunday afternoon I was able to get the kids some clothes at a consignment sale. I love that my girls can go with me, help me pick out their outfits and then hold them all while we shop! They definitely are getting my love of clothes.
After that, we all went up to the mall to pick up my ring. I finally got my ring back!! I also bought a a cute shirt from Ann Taylor and a new swimsuit for myself I’m pretty excited about. Come on, Summer!

My laundry still needs done but guess what? It waited on me while we had a great weekend!

Zoo Day 2010

March 20, 2010 by Amy 6 Comments

P.S. Carolyn et al, I didn’t post your pics…wasn’t sure if you wanted it on here!

I was so happy to get to see Carolyn and family today. They were visiting Myrtle Beach from Canada and we decided to meet for a trip at the zoo. This is our second meeting..hopefully 2nd of many more. We visited one of our favorite restaurants from Cola (as the locals call Columbia) Lizard’s Thicket for lunch for some home cooking and then spent the afternoon at the zoo.

I realized this was the first time I had been with Lexi. I went several times with Emma when we lived there but never have made it back in the six years we’ve been back. It was a gorgeous day and apparently everyone else thought a visit to the zoo was the perfect way to spend the day because it was quite crowded. We managed a pretty good time though.

My favorite moment by far though was a visit to the gorillas. I think this shows our fascination with going to the zoos again and again…you just never know what they’re going to do.

Local Press on My Suze Orman Segment

March 16, 2010 by Amy 1 Comment

Our local newspaper and news station decided to do an article and segment on my segment on Suze Orman airing this weekend. I think my time on the news here is going to be longer than the actual Suze segment!

I’m happy to talk about the golf tournament as I think it’s going to be a great time for a good cause and I love Suze. I hope more people tune in to her as well. We all can use financial advice no matter where we are in our journey.

See the rest of the news article here.

Maybe it’s not a new car, a fancy home or an expensive flat-screen TV, but before Fort Mill resident Amy Bennett splurges a little on something fun, she needs to know, “Can I afford it?”

Last week, Bennett taped a spot for The Suze Orman Show’s “Can I afford it?” segment. The splurge she wants to make? A trip to the third annual “Beyond the Lights” celebrity golf tournament in Texas. The tournament, which raises funds for spinal cord injury research, is hosted by Brad Leland and Kyle Chandler, two of the stars of the NBC show “Friday Night Lights.”

Actors and actresses from the show also attend the tournament, which includes a silent auction and concert, and filming for the show occurs in nearby Austin. An avid fan of the show, Bennett runs a Friday Night Lights fan Web site, www.fridaynightlightsfan.com, that offers up-to-the-minute information on the show as well as recaps, blogging about the show and the cast, and a podcast created by Bennett and her partner on the Web site, Kaitlin Mattison.

Bennett has wanted to go to the tournament before, but felt like now is the time to book the trip.

“The network has already said this is the last year of the show,” Bennett said. “So this is probably the last year all of these actors will be together in Austin, so this is it. It’s kind of do it this year or never.”

Jenny from the FM Times wrote the article and I had such a fun time talking to her. We know each other back from high school and I almost forgot I was doing an interview on the phone with her. I think it really came across in the article and am so pleased with it.

Today Diane from CN2 came over for just a few minutes to get a couple sound bites for their segment on tonight’s news. I didn’t really realize I was going to be on camera. I thought it might be one of those they show my headshot or a picture of the show and then just saw a few words about it. I realized just how much I talk with my hands! If you can’t view the video below, check it out here.