Vegas - Day 1 (part 2)

We don't want to disappoint anyone by not posting pictures of our meals! ha! So here is our dinner tonight!

VEGAS - Day 1

We got up this morning at 3:30 to get ready for our flight. As we were driving to the airport - we got a phone call from Delta that our 6 a.m. flight was delayed until noon. UGH! We were ready so we kept going and we managed to switch flights and take a different route and we got to Vegas around 11. By the time we got our luggage and rental car - it was 12:30 here (and 2:30 our time) so we were starving. So we hit up the Sonic of the west coast - In and Out burger! It was great!
Then we checked into our hotel -the Venetian. It is SUPER nice. You can see pictures of our room and the canal in the middle of the hotel. There are tons of stores and restaurants in the hotel. Tonight we are exhausted. We went and ate dinner in the hotel at a restaurant and now we are back in the room ready to go to bed. Scott has to get up early and go to his conference and I have a date with the pool and a book. I wanted to work out while I was here but we went to look at the gym in the hotel and it is FANTASTIC but they charge you $35 a day to use it. That's almost a month at Gold's. ha!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad it's Friday!
I just went into vacation mode early and had a Krispy Kreme donut! Oh well. I think I may go eat one more.
I'm excited because tomorrow I am partaking in a "day of beauty". Scott got me a gift certificate to a spa for my birthday and I've been saving it so I'm going to get a pedicure, manicure and eyebrow wax in the morning and then I'm getting my hair colored and cut in the afternoon!
I didn't want Vegas to turn me away for having roots or unpainted toenails. ha!

"Bright lights city gonna set my soul..............gonna set my soul on fire"

Hey Baby Let's go to vegas - bet on love and let it ride

When I'm coming up on a trip or vacation.......I always like to have a theme song that I can sing to help me get excited or to play at the beginning of the trip video that I make.
So when Laurie and I went to mexico a few years ago .........the theme was "Mexico" by James Taylor. Or when I went with 3 friends to New York .......it was Ryan Adams "New York".
Two years ago, Scott and I went on a cruise that left from Miami and I wore him out with that song by Will Smith "Miami" only I could only remember like 4 words from the song so it was mostly humming.
When we went to see the hogs play in Los Angeles - I constantly sang that song "California" - the OC theme song. Of course - once again - I really only knew that phrase "california...........here we come!"
So now we are headed to vegas and I'm alternating between 2 songs .....Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas" and Faith Hill's "Hey baby let's go to Vegas". At least 3 times a day - I try to serenade Scott with these songs to get him pumped. I think he's ready to leave me home. ha!
I could get real obnoxious and make it my ring tone!
What's your favorite trip song?

Will you Accept this Rose?

Last night I went and watched "The Bachelor" with six sweet girls. The Bachelor is just the ultimate girl's night out show. Men have Monday night football - we have one goofy guy and 25 desperate women. It's so much more fun to watch with other people and comment and laugh all the way through it.

This year's bachelor, Andy, is a navy doctor and he makes sure that you don't forget it. He likes to remind the women about every 10 minutes of his profession with savvy statements like "Have you ever dated a doctor before?" or " you are just what the doctor ordered". All I can think is that he looks just like Zach from "Saved by the Bell".

Just a couple of notes:

1. Update on our weight loss - Scott has lost 17 lbs and I've lost 8. Not too bad! :-)

2. We spent all day yesterday (from 9 a.m. until after 6 p.m.) re-doing our flower beds. We dug it all up and started from scratch. It was hard work. We are both very thankful to not have to do manual labor for jobs. We were exhausted last night and I think all of our muscles are sore today. But it looks much better and we should never have to do anything but re-mulch again! PTL!

3. We are leaving one week from today for a vacation in Las Vegas! Everyone looks at me funny when I tell them we are going there. We don't drink or gamble so seems kind of crazy. But Scott's work is sending him on a conference there so we basically had to pay for my plane ticket and then we are staying a few extra nights (in a cheaper hotel since we are staying in a nice place for the conference) so we paid for that. We hadn't planned on any kind of trip this year so it's nice to get to take one for less than if we took a week's trip to Branson or something. ha! While Scott is in class - I'll get to have the days to myself - sleeping late and reading a book by the pool. Heaven! We are excited just to go somewhere and spend a week together with no stress! (and I'm sure Scott will be excited to mingle with all the nerds and learn what's new and exciting with Microsoft. Be still my heart!)

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

I'm a self described neat freak. I always have been. Ask my poor college roommate. Our freshman year when she would get out of bed in the morning to go to the bathroom - I would have her bed made before she could crawl back to it. I drove her nuts.
I also love cleaning products. I'm a marketing team's dream. I'm a sucker for every new cleaning product that comes out. My newest love is the automatic shower cleaner that you hang in your shower and then push a button and it cleans your shower. I have skipped around for the past week because there was a $10 coupon in the mail so I got it for half off and it really seems to be keeping my glass shower clean. Hurray!!!
But as busy as my life is - I just don't have a lot of time to clean so it becomes a chore. My only free time is the weekends and I just hate to spend half of that time cleaning. So I came up with a plan. I've strayed from this for a few months but I'm back on it and it just makes my life so much simpler. I've shared it with a few friends and they seem to like it also.
I've just divided my house up by room by day. So that I only clean a room or two a night (or day) and it doesn't seem like such a chore. I spend 20-30 minutes a day and my house is constantly clean. And I can have a leisurely Saturday doing fun things now. And I seem to clean a lot better because I'm focused on just one small area. So tonight I just did the master bedroom. But I got out a ladder and cleaned the top of our armoire and our ceiling fan and I cleaned our windows really good. (all things I might skip if I was doing the entire house at once).
Awwwww........a clean house is a happy house! :-)

Twinkies!

So we are sitting in church this morning and I feel a tap on my shoulder and someone laughing. I turn around and it's Guy and Julie and I look at her and I look down and Yes - we are indeed wearing the same dress. The funny thing is the styles were a little different and we bought them from two totally different places. As you can see in the picture - we are also wearing the exact same boots (that we both bought at a very upscale un-named boutique!)
This is the "loudest" print dress I own. I had no idea Julie had the same dress. What are the odds that we would wear them on the same day? So of course we had to sit next to each other in Sunday School. We normally teach early Sunday School together so we would have had a good laugh and confused our 4 year olds but they had company this weekend so Scott filled in instead.
I told Julie we just looked like we were trying to sing together on a praise team. Point of Grace - watch out!

T.G.I.F.

I haven't had a lot to write about this week. It's been a busy week.
Tonight I'm helping with my second church banquet of the week. It's a lot of work and very tiring after a long day at work but I just enjoy serving so much. It's always fun to see who is at the different banquets and the different women (and men) who help serve are always fun to visit with while we work. I helped with a banquet for all the youth ministers in the area on Tuesday. Jay Strack was the speaker. It's exciting to hear about how God is moving with teenagers. Tonight is a banquet for the church ushers and safety team.
I'm looking forward to resting tomorrow and spending the day indoors. I am not in love with this cold, rainy weather we are having right now (where is spring?) but it gives me a good excuse to stay cuddled up inside and catch up on all the DVR'd shows I've been neglecting lately. (and possibly to clean my house). We had planned to go watch the hogs play FL in baseball but I only watch baseball in warm, sunny weather. I have 0% interest in baseball so I'm only there to feel the sun on my face and drink a big diet coke and people watch. (But I'll shiver in a rain suit for football any day!)

P.S. If you are a mom (or even if you aren't one yet like me) - and you don't read Beth Moore's blog (which you should).......go read this.

Ants Marching

The very first summer that Laurie and I lived together, I was so impressed with myself when I got up one Saturday morning and went to the Fayetteville Farmer's Market and bought this darling homemade box full of flowers. I put it on our fireplace and it just looked so cute and I felt so grown up. You can now hear the record player come to a scratch............................one night I picked up the "darling" box and there were no less than a MILLION ants crawling under neath. Between my screaming, I insisted to Laurie that we needed to pack our things immediately because there was no way I was going to continue to live in that duplex where all of those ants had been. I'm sure we lost a ton of brain cells that night from all the raid I sprayed in our house.
That was 11 years ago and I haven't really seen an ant since UNTIL a little over a week ago. I happened to glance down in the laundry room at Dawson's bowl of food and it was CRAWLING with ants. I grabbed the bowl and threw it in the trash (amidst my screams). And this is the cute dog bowl set I had looked for for a while but it is gone with the wind now. The ants started getting worse and worse until last Thursday night I walked in my pantry and ants were EVERYWHERE. Scott doesn't understand why I completely freaked out. He kept saying "it's just ants". JUST ANTS? JUST ANTS? I tore every last item out of our pantry and bleached every thing down and threw away everything that wasn't sealed inside a can or package. (Oh well - we ARE on a diet anyway).
I was off on Friday and my prince charming (a.k.a. the bug guy) came and sprayed and put down something that is supposed to take 2 weeks to take effect and also left me with several traps. He was so nice and not only that........we got home last night and I have YET to lay eyes on an ant. (I'm sure the 20 degree nights may have something to do with it) but I'm praying that my days of ants are over.

Happy Easter!

Scott and I in front of the Dam

Eating dinner Saturday night

My mom made a cute Easter coconut cake

Eating lunch

Me and mom making fruit salad

We went to Flippin yesterday to celebrate Easter with my parents. We had such a nice weekend. Yesterday we ate lunch and then drove around town. We went up to Bull Shoals Dam to see the new visitor center. It's such a pretty view. It would have been so much nicer if it hadn't been 35 degrees. Did I mention I really hate wearing boots and a coat in April?
Then last night we ate dinner at Hopper's in Mountain Home. This morning was church and it was a great Easter service and then my Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob came over and my mom made a delicious Easter lunch. We just got home a little while ago but it was nice to see our family and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus!

Happy Easter!

Walking in a "spring" Wonderland?

It's April the FIFTH.
In Arkansas
Last week it was 80 degrees
Today.......

IT'S SNOWING!

Congratulations to Brian and Isabel on the birth of

Katarina Juliana Kay

She was born last night and weighed in at 5 lbs and 8 oz. She made an early entry into life and I can't wait to see her! I bet she is beautiful!

I'm so glad we had her baby shower planned for Monday night and not Wednesday night! :-)

Edit: We saw her! (see picture) She's TINY and absolutely perfect!

Beauty Shop Day

Today was haircut day in the Stamps family. Dawson went to the groomer this morning. Doesn't he look SO much better? The poor thing can finally see! And he had a darling Easter scarf all ready to wear to see his country cousins in Flippin this weekend. I also went to get my hair "done" after work. I realize that you really can't tell a difference in the 2 pictures after 3 hours with my stylist. No matter what happens - my hair always looks basically the same. But what IS missing in the 2nd picture are the terrible gray roots that I inherited from my dad's side of the family. Yes I have been completely gray since about 25. Nothing about my hair anymore is natural. But the Bible does say that "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; It is attained by a righteous life" Proverbs 16:31. Can't argue with that!

Lettuce Wraps and Wipees

One end of the table

Stacy, Ginger and Michelle listening intently to a story

Lisa and Vonda

Isabel opening one of her many gifts

Tonight our Sunday School class had a shower for my friend Isabel. She is expecting her second daughter, Katarina, in a couple of weeks. They have one beautiful daughter, Dominique, who is 1 1/2. We had the shower at P.F. Cheng's! Yum! Good food, good friends and good presents for Isabel!

Chips and Salsa

Is this not the prettiest baby you have ever laid eyes on?

Today my best friend Laurie turns 35!!!! I can't believe we have known each other for 15 years!!!! It seems like just yesterday we were 18 and 20 and eating at Mazzio's after church in Arkadelphia. And today we ate at Chili's after church with our husbands and Laurie's beautiful daughter. There is no one on this earth who makes me laugh more than Laurie or who understands when I'm laughing. I'm so glad that God let me pick out my own sister here on earth!