There's no "I" in Redemption Photo

Actually there is and "I" look good.

Kidding! I kid. Sort of. You all know how I like to toot my own horn.

During Christmas Brian and I were able to take our redemption photo for Unfiltered Nonsense and we added another good-looking Garrett.

Enjoy.

Music Monday

Today's "Music Monday" doubles as a not-so-long distance dedication to my parents who would be celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary today.

I have multiple memories of Dad coming up behind Mom in the kitchen to give her a hug and singing the line "If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?"

Turbo embarrassing for a teenager, but super sweet when you consider there was still that kind of love 30+ years into a marriage.

Thanks Mom & Dad for being a living example of a faith-filled, loving and real love.

Music Monday

Christmas is almost here!!

Just like Ronnie sang

For YEARS I have been promoting Eddie Money and his music. FINALLY, Hollywood has gotten on board my Eddie Money, Take Me Home Tonight bandwagon and I couldn't be more excited. Seriously, I think I let out an involuntary squeal when I saw this video.

This is probably what love at first sight feels like.

Buyer's remorse

We all knew this day would come. The day when I regretted buying my Civic. Show of hands though, who knew it'd be because of the sound the horn makes?

That's right.

The horn.

I'm not a violent person by nature. Sure I can mouth off when provoked and "accidentally" kicked Becca in the head that one time, but 50% of the time my gut reaction is not to strike. That is, unless I'm on the road. Suburban driving brings out the worse in me and it's like idiot drivers are bred here.

The two left lanes on north bound Antioch have been left turn lanes only, to west bound 435 for easily the last 2 years. Still, at least once a week there is some jackhole that "misses" the 18,000 signs telling them they are in a turn lane. Said jackhole then proceeds to hangout in the middle of the intersection, waits until I'm driving over the bridge at 40 mph and then tries to cut back into the lane, right in front of me.

My natural reaction to this is to ride their bummer and lay on my horn until it's time for me to turn into my condo complex in about 50 feet. How else will they learn?

With the Stratus, the sound produced by my horn matched what I was feeling and yelling inside my car. If that feeling were represented as a cartoon character it'd be Bluto, from Popeye.

However, in the Civic I now sound like Wade the Duck, from Garfield and Friends, wetting himself.

If the Dukes of Hazzard can have a custom horn, then so will I.

So. Will. I.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!!

Bubba, Bubba, Bubba...where to begin? He and I didn't get off to the greatest start, it's a classic tale of sibling rivalry. He tried to sell me for a quarter to his classmate Michael Zerr at his 3rd grade, classroom Easter party. I'd make myself cry and blame it on him. He'd tie my shoes together in knots so that I couldn't get them untied. I invented the term "smiling me off" to get him in trouble.

I'm 4 years younger people, of course he sounds like the master of sister picking, it's hard for a kindergartner to think of good retaliations...they still make up knock knock jokes like "knock knock. who's there? ummmm....ear....HAHAHAHA!"

But somewhere over the years we started picking on the same people and it's been friendship ever since.

I love you lots, Bubba! Happy Birthday!!

Going...going....GONE!

Lately, I've felt a bit bored and stagnate. Luckily, I channeled that feeling into chopping 7 inches off my hair, like any reasonable lady.

Here I am with kind of a extra cheesey grin.

Here I am a little more posh and uncharacteristicly serious.

And here I am thoroughly amused at taking a picture while holding my computer upside down. Nerd alert.

Music Monday

Boo, I hate being sick. Maybe hearing "Soft Kity" will make me feel better.

Zoom! Zoom! Zoooom!

I ran like this at work this morning after two cups of coffee and a $5 dare (minus The Flash costume).

Erin = funniest boss ever. In tough economic times you gotta keep the work atmosphere light y'all.

Also, if you feel like you are a slow runner incorporate the "zoom zoom zooms" into your form, I think you'll find it makes you faster. I'm talking to you Kendahl Garrett! Bubba won't stand a chance in the next rematch.

The excitement builds

The Sing-Off on NBC starts on Monday. I hope all of the groups are as good as The Beelzebubs were last year (even though they came in 2nd).

Happy Birthday, Brian!!

11 months and 8,000 family birthday posts later we arrive at the second to last family birthday of the year, and perhaps, the most anticipated post by one, Brian Garrett. That's right, today is my big brother's birthday. I searched high and low, on facebook and in boxes of pictures at Mom's house and I could not find one good picture of the two of us together.

Here we are on Brian's 18th(ish) birthday where he got the latest in personal music players, a walkman. Neither of us are looking at the camera and Jeremy is overacting...fail.

Look, he was nice enough to let me try it out, but now my cute little face is blocked by his big ole hands.

This one had potential, but Brian isn't looking forward, my face is cut off and I can't decide if that is a homeless person's dress I'm wearing, or a nightgown (judging from the food left on the plates, our family tradition of birthday breakfast and my continued dislike of getting dressed before noon, I'm going with nightgown).

Perhaps God knows that a photo containing two such good looking faces would turn the world upside down or maybe neither of us sits still long enough to get a good shot. Either way, this travesty needs to be remedied tout de suite. Check back around Christmas time when Brian and I will be featured in the first ever Unfiltered Nonsense redemption photo.

Happy birthday, Brian!! I love you!

And......I'M BACK!

Back in business with a new computer at home so now my absentee posting will be for other reasons.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Welcome to the jungle, Sammers

This post is just a touch late, but I can still justify the timing if you hang with me here.

Jeremy & Trisha welcomed their first born into the world on Thursday, Nov. 18th and named her Samantha Jane Garrett. While the doctor delivered her two weeks early she still weighed in at an impressive 7lbs 11oz, 20 inches.

Though not readily apparent on this blog from a timing standpoint, I was beaming with excitment over the pending birth and timed my arrival to the hospital perfectly. All the grandparents had gotten to hold her and she was primmed for some "Lulu time."

Here I am telling her she looks just like me.

About 10 seconds after I started holding her the nurse took her away from me to check her blook sugar levels again. Long story short, they ended up putting her in to the NICU :(

I went back on Saturday with my sister Kim and Sam had clearly had a visit from Papa Garrett during the night because she had already pulled out her feeding tube once. I could just hear him say "Ok Sam, wanna see that lady out there run in here really fast? Just give this a real good tug."

Here's a picture of Daddy trying to teach her how to eat and breath at the same time so she can leave the hospital. It's a classic Garrett family problem, we just get so excited to eat breathing becomes non-essential. I mean, her Uncle Brian was so into eating a Thanksgiving dinner once he broke into a sweat :)

This is just a really cute picture of Grammy loving on her 7th grandchild.

So after being in the NICU for a week Sam decided she was done with that place, pulled out her feeding tube for a second time, started eating like a champ and went home with Mommy and Daddy today!

Congrats Bubba & Trisha! Love you all!!

Full of GLEE...again

This clip makes me super excited for Glee tonight and reminds me that I hope NBC brings back "The Sing-off" between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled day.

Music Monday

I bought an Eric Church cd last week in my preparations for the long trek home again this past weekend. The entire cd is a winner in my books, but today I'll be sharing the latest single/video, "Smoke a Little Smoke."

It's probably my favorite song to blare in my car with fully functional bass and speaker system. It's just icing on the cake that Kasey Kahne makes an appearance in the video.

Enjoy.

Smiles over tears for this post

It's hard to believe that a years time has passed since we lost Dad to his battle with cancer. I think about him everyday and depending on the day that either results in a smile or tears. Today the teary moments are winning out, but I figured I would share a clip from one of his favorite John Wayne western, McLintock!

I remember the first time I watched this with him on tv he was reciting every punch line before it was said and laughing like it was the first time he heard them. We even made Mom wait until the movie was over before we would get around to go to the nursing home to see Grandma Jeanne.

Hope you enjoy this good old-fashion mud brawl.

Happy Birthday Sonya!!

That's right folks, ANOTHER October birthday for the Garrett family. Today belongs to my sister-in-law, Sonya, who I've known since Kindergarden and can blame/credit for my budding owl collection.

I can't wait until she opens this years Christmas present from me!

Happy Birthday SonSon, I'm super glad you are part of my crazy family. Keep rockin' :) I love you!

Music Monday (special request)

There was a special request for me to do a music monday post dedicated to my new car...so here we go.

For those of you who don't know, I come from a Dodge/Chrylser family and the guilt of buying "foreign" really weighed heavily on me during the car search. However, after two weeks of owning my 2007 Honda Civic I feel like my decision to go rouge was right for me.

This song goes out to my brothers Brian and Jeremy who might think I'm crazy, but were still supportive during the process (and by supportive I mean they limited the amount of shit they gave me) :)

And for those of you who haven't seen it yet, here is the car.

Happy Birthday Kimmi!!

Today is a two-fer post because it is also my big sister's birthday! When I was in Kindergarden people used to call me Mini-Kimmi. Now they just call me Kim.

Happy Birthday, sister. When I count my blessings I count you twice :) I love you!!!!

Happy Birthday Kennel!!

I used to pride myself on the fact that I was always able to make people feel old by telling them my age. The torch has officially been passed, my oldest niece, Kendahl, is celebrating her sweet 16 today.

For reals...this little cutie

is now a full grown teenager!

Happy Birthday Kennel!!!! I'm so proud of the young lady you are becoming...now, if only we can get you to beat Bubba in a foot race :)

I Love you!

Let the withdrawal begin

My personal computer has decided to no longer work. This means blogging will slow down even more until I figure something else out.

Prepare to be disappointed in me :)

How ever will I procrastinate house work without the distractions of facebook, email, perezhilton and youtube?

Music Monday

This week's Music Monday doubles as a congratulations to my friends Taddy-Long-Legs and J-Money who got married this weekend.

Congratulations kids!!

Happy Birthday Emily!!

She's super sporty,

got a heart of gold

and just a touch oneriness.

She's EMILY and it's her birthday today! She may be my third oldest niece, but she holds a very special place in my heart because she is my first and only goddaughter.

One of my favorite Emily stories is from when she was probably about 3 or 4 years old. Kim, her and I were back home at mom and dad's house and that whole weekend she had been wearing these cute butterfly jammers to bed. Dad, being dad, teased Emily every time she put them on saying, "Hey, those are my butterfly jammies." And after about the third day of this treatment, Emily had enough. Dad had gotten his hands on the jammers and was teasing her and teasing her that those were his jammies and not hers. She yanked the jammers from his hands and yelled, "I'M TAKING MY JAMMIES AND GETTING THE HELLLLL OUT OF HERE!"

Hand to God, it was the funniest thing I've ever heard a sweet little girl say. And what spawned from that was a great tradition with her and Papa, exchanging butterfly gifts they made for each other.

Happy 14th birthday, Miss Emily!! I love you!