Family Field Trip to Coco's

Today the family, minus NiBo, took a road trip to Page Turner town to check out Coco's Sweet shop! Lucky for us it was cupcake Saturday too! A.drama and I got a yummy cookie dough cupcake. Even dad enjoyed picking out different chocolate covered items. Mom opted for the saltwater taffy, DELISH TOO! Everything is so sweetly delicious at Coco's, we decided the vanilla taffy was the best, although I'm pretty partial to the banana.

PT had lots of new things since the last time I was up for opening weekend. It's so good to see a friend so happy and everyone rooting her on. Also as part of my fall pumpkin challenge I HAD to try the pumpkin fudge and the pumpkin malt balls. Pumpkin Fudge gets a thumbs up from me! Tastes like pumpkin pie, it was delish!! The pumpkin spice malt balls were ok, definitely better than the pumpkin spice m&m's! 

I don't know if you know this or not, but Historic Route 66 goes right through Page Turner's town! PT pointed us in the direction of The Route 66 Family diner in town so we stopped in for lunch. Then we drove around to check out a few more of the historic places in town.

Don't forget to check out the The Candy Lady Diaries to hear the stories of life in the candy shop.

Thanks PT for giving us a new location to field trip to and get our sweet tooth on! 

Throw Back Thursday: Homecoming

It's that time of year here in small town... it's Homecoming week. Tonight under cover of darkness students will sneak onto unsuspecting teachers and strangers' yards to throw toliet paper up in their trees. I did watch the parade and got candy thrown at me, there were tootsie rolls so I was ok with the candy projectiles.

Here is a throw back to my 2000 Freshman Homecoming dance with me and my date. I loved this dress color, I remember I was so excited when I found a fingernail polish that matched perfectly. Gma made this and my matching purse. It comes in very handy to have a Gma who can sew, she made several formal dresses for me and saved us a boat load of cash! Hard to believe this picture was 13 years ago! Holy moly.

Happy Thursday! You're almost to the weekend! 

Happy Anniversary

Happy 31 years to the best parents a girl could ask for! 

10 Things: I love about Tuesdays aka SOA Night

Specifically this Tuesday, but most of this can be transposed with any Tuesday during SOA season

* Sons of Anarchy...obvs

* Text exchanges with OL that mostly include exchanges of "Holy $h*t" or omg

* My mom calling at 10:17 to discuss SOA

* The fact I said holy crap before the first commercial break and 6 mins in

* Facebook messages from friends live chatting the show

* Having no clue what is going to happen this season but trying to figure it out anyway

* Following Twitter #SOAFX while I watch and seeing other people's reactions

* Tomorrow's lunch discussion

* Jax Teller 

* We are only 3 episodes in and I already can't imagine my Tuesdays without this show

Songs I Can't Get Out of My Head

I can't get these two songs out of my head, they are so freakin catchy.

This first song is NiBo's fault, he showed it to me and I can't get it unstuck. Watch the video then you will find the funny in the accompanying photo from our Chicago trip.

This next song won't stop playing on the radio and the infectious chorus remains stuck in my head too.

 

You're welcome, I hope they are stuck in your head now too. It's only proper you pass them along and get it stuck in someone else's head.

Happy Monday! 

Finally Fall!

Happy First day of Fall my friends! The days will now officially start getting shorter and the nights will grow crisper, and what a perfect first day of Fall it has been. With the low dipping into the lower 40's it definitely will feel like a Fall night. It's my favorite time of year and I can't wait for the leaves to start changing. 

I found this list on Pinterest and I love everything on it. I can't wait to cross it all off my Fall list, you can also add everything Pumpkin to the list ;) 

On The Last Day of Sumner

As summer fades to an end, NiBo and I made the best of the last day of summer. He usually never has a Saturday off but for a change today he did and we had to do something fun in honor of that, and the last day of summer. So we went to Chicago! 

On our way to our Museum destination we took a stroll through Grant Park and checked out the Buckingham Fountain.

Our last Chicago adventure included the Art Museum, this time we opted to check out the Field Museum. Neither of us had been up to the museum for many many years. We went with the VIP ticket which got us into a 3D Movie about the T-Rex dinosaur Sue on display and access to a few other exhibits which weren't as cool.

My favorite part of the museum was definitely the fossils, fossils of any kind, but mostly the dinosaurs, because well dinosaurs are awesome.

The last time we went to Chicago we tried to go to the Skydeck but didn't feel like waiting in line for hours, so we called it a day. This time was different, we didn't have to be home so soon to get ready for Monday, so we decided no matter what we'd wait. When we got to Willis Tower they said it would be a two hour wait, blah, ok we'll wait.

They queued you up in a couple spots so at least you felt like you were moving. Most of the people in line were from foreign countries, even as Illinoians we took the tourist destination bait and waited and waited in line. While we waited they had slide show pictures of Chicago views on the TV monitors, we found it funny and odd that people were cramming to take pictures of the pictures. Wouldn't you rather go out into the city and actually see them? How do you explain that, " well why I was waiting in line I took some pictures of the pictures of Chicago" Also we learned that people do not know proper line etiquette, which can be annoying, but is just par for the course I suppose.

Once we got to the top, which only ended up being about an hour wait, the views were worth it! And the glass boxes that stick out the side of the 103rd floor were pretty cool too! 

 Happy last day of summer! Hope you got to live it up too! 

iPhone 5s

I had the day off today and thought I'd take a chance and try to get the new iPhone that came out today... well I succeeded! I just happened to have my upgrade in time to get the new one, and for the first time I have the current phone that is out new!

I told myself I wasn't going to wait in line so I was hoping that by chance pulling up to Best Buy when they open would be enough. When I pulled up like 10 minutes until they open there were only like 3 people in line. Ok I can do this.

Turns out they started passing out tickets to get the phone at 8:00 and people waited overnight and started lining up at 10:30 the night before. I can't think of anything I want that bad to wait outside overnight in the cold. So when I strolled up to the line, they asked what carrier I had and boom, they had a phone left, several it turns out but hey I got one and that's all that matters.

In the short line to check out I quickly realized I don't belong with these people. First off just because I'm in line for the same product does not mean I want to hear you and your phones life story. Also I suggest that if you are going to be one of the first people, please understand how the phone works. While waiting in the line the guy in front of me had the most basic of questions for for the apple expert. ugh. Then the girl behind me wanted to tell me about every iPhone she has ever had... yikes.

But after playing with the new phone I love it! Much faster than my other phone, love the new features. Gpa goes on and on about how he doesn't understand the big deal about getting a new phone... it's hard to explain to old people. But our phones are such huge part of our everyday lives (well at least for my generation) not saying it's a good thing, it's just a fact Jack.

Happy Friday! 

Throw Back Thursday: New Phone

Since I'm going to attempt to get the new iPhone that comes out tomorrow, here is a throwback to me on my kitchen phone. Enjoy! 

For Your Info: A Harvest Moon

Here is a little fun fact for you tonight/tomorrow is a special kind of full moon, it's the Harvest moon! What is a harvest moon you might be asking yourself. Well let me tell you the short of it. A Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox, aka the first day of fall; which is only 4 days away! 

You can read more about a harvest moon on google, or the site I learned about it Earth Sky

Don't forget to look up! Happy Hump Day! 

Not Everything About Fall is Good

I give you exhibit A... Pumpkin Spice m&m's. Horrible, disgusting, yuck, and any other synonym you can come up with for gross. They taste like gingerbread pumpkin or some combination of both. Not everything needs to be pumpkin-ized in the Fall. (although our pumpkin pedicure was amazeballs)

Exhibit B.... the white chocolate Candy corn m&m's. While they are not my favorite their taste far out weighs the nasty pumpkin spice. If you like white chocolate I'd say give it a try.

I think I shall make it my Fall mission to try anything pumpkin that I come in contact with. 

So far (and it's not even Fall yet) I have tried:  

 - Pumpkin Spice Latte from McDs (I took one sip. I don't like coffee) = No

 - Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Pedicure = Yes, Awesome! 

 - Pumpkin Spice M&M's = vomit. yuck. No.

The Weinermobile and Cinnamon Pumpkin Pedicures

Today was a very exciting day here in small town, The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile made a stop in town today! How exciting!! Of course we had to make an appearance and get a few photos, and hot dog it up for the camera... haha get it, "hot dog!"

We even picked up a few goodies at our visit. The standard weiner whistle, an 'I saw it' sticker and a key chain! Sweet! 

Then A.Drama and I head off to the big city for a little sister bonding time for mani's and pedi's. She told me she saw a sign that the nail place we go to had Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice pedicures, and thought we'd give it a try. On our way down I asked her if maybe she was confused and it was for a coffee place, she assured me it was for a pedicure.

Well when we got there.... turns out she was right! It was AMAZING!! There was pumpking scrub, pumpkin oil, and pumpkin butter cream lotion! It still smells so good, and left our feet very soft! Sure pumpkin is overdone this time of year, but I'm all for a pumpkin spice pedicure.

I went for a fall shade on my nails to get into the fall theme, with OPI's Espresso Your Style.

Then we went to Target, and the Target eye got the better of us and we ended up buying more than we needed. At this point NiBo joined us, and the eye got him too.

Oh and in case you were wondering, Target has their Halloween stuff out. 

Then we ended our day with more sister bonding time back at home... this consists of us both sitting on the computer. mostly on Pinterest, and telling the other when we have found something cool or funny. We are also attempting to get a jump start on our Christmas shopping, or at least getting our lists together. Only 100 more days ya know! 

Busy busy weekend with lots of fun things. 7 more days until it's officially fall! Hope everyone had a great weekend too, I know I sure did! 

The Tuskegee Airmen Exhibit

Today Dad and I took a little road trip over to the old Air Force base to their museum, they were hosting The Rise Above traveling exhibit which features a restored WWII P-51C Mustang commemorating the Red Tail paint scheme used by the Tuskegee Airmen. 

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first all African-American aviator group in WWII. The Rise Above traveling exhibit consists of a 35 seat traveling theater set up in a semi rig. Once aboard you watch a 30 minute movie that tells the history of the airmen, telling the story of how they overcame segregation in the military and how they overcame diversity and became heros. The message of this event is foremost to keep the memory of the Tuskegee Airmen alive as well as reminding us that all it takes is a dream and a desire and you can overcome anything to reach your goals. 

Also on display was a P-40E Warhawk

 

The P-51C Mustang

For $2000 you could take a ride in the Mustang, expensive yes but considering the restoration and upkeep of a WWII era plane it's not unreal. Just as we were getting ready to leave someone was taking a flight, so we were able to hear it start up and take off, pretty neat.

The Mustang on display has actually had to go through two restorations. After it had been restored the first time, during a 2004 air show fly by the plane lost it's engine power and crashed. Sadly the pilot lost his life. But following the Tuskegee way, in the face of adversity, the decision was made to again restore the P-51. You can learn more about the two restorations on the redtail.org site.

I hope you'll take a second to Google the Tuskegee Airmen, or check out the Red Tail website. If for nothing else just to learn a little bit about our nation's military past. You can also see the movie Red Tails, which gives you an idea about what it was like for the airmen during their combat missions.