I am... Katie Fierce.

Oh yeah. I am totally going to "bring it" to Detroit and the Beyonce show. As always, have good seats, willing to travel, have a partner in crime, my friend Joe who is agreeing to let me call him Boyonce for the evening. Gotta love a friend like that!!!!

A few samples of the treasures in store for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7a24mf_76k&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i38JRTyMik&feature=channel

Ack! I can't wait!

I wonder if she knows I am coming?

Five After Five Friday's at Whole Foods

My neighbor Nikki introduced me to the AMAZING Five After Five Friday's at Whole Foods.
As I told Nikki, I felt a little silly that I can walk to Whole Foods from my house and that I never knew about this event.
Here's how it works:
Go to Whole Foods on Friday's between 5-7 p.m. Take $5.00.
You will get a punch card and a wine glass.
You will get to sample (a generous sample) five different wines along with five samplings of complimentary foods to go along with each kind of wine.
If you save your wine glass and take it back the following week you only pay $4.00.
Guess who has their wineglass in the kitchen cabinet???

You be the judge...

You're doing the laundry for your family.

You wash, dry, fold.

You find a $20.00 bill.

Keep it? Check to see who it might belong to?

Is there an over/under for ownership? Say, if I find $20.00, I'm keeping it but if it's over $20.00 I'll ask around?

A book I would gladly pass along- The Castaways

What a great, great read. A complex tale of a group of four couples and how their lives are interwoven together. In the book these four couples, completely different in their lifestyle and temperament forge some of the closest friendships you will read about. After tragedy strikes their group it is interesting to see how some of the friendships realign themselves before all roads lead back to home. A must read for sure!

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

*If anyone would like to read it let me know and I will gladly send it on to you.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Early last year I got caught with my pants down. Or rather, a lot of pants in my closet. And a lot of shoes in my closet. OK, and some expensive handbags as well. I had amassed a wee bit of credit card debt, much to my husbands chagrin. And when I say wee bit, I am being sarcastic. And not a wee bit, a lotta bit. And the problem was, I was not exactly forthcoming about my secret stash o'credit cards. And like many things you don't want out in the open, this one did not successfully stay in the closet. So my husband bailed me out, and I learned to live within my means. Which has felt downright mean at times. This year for Lent I gave up SHOPPING. Although temptress Wendy Brandes did manage to get the best of me, but I had allowed myself a hall pass while on vacation for some shopping which was when I made my purchases, so it kind of didn't count. Moving right along, my Lenten sacrifices stayed with me. Yes, I have done some shopping, but NOTHING compared to the days of Katie in her heyday. (Cue wistful daydreaming sequence) But, true confession: I did buy several new dresses to take on girl trip. So I'm getting ready to go out this past weekend and Brian says "Is that a new dress?" Damn. That guy NEVER notices stuff like that. Fortunately I was able to answer honestly that no, the dress was not new. Which it wasn't. I had already worn it once. So there.

Mail call! (And why I am loving the US Postal Service)

Lately, I LOVE getting our mail. Love it! In addition to my new-found love of Hey It's Free! and all of the fun free samples I get in the mail we have been getting...

LETTERS FROM SCHOOLS!

I just knew when we got Tessa's AMAZING ACT scores we would start getting some good mail and I was right! Yippee!

We got the breakdown of her scores, and I have to say once again how impressed I am by my daughter. She scored in the top 1% of kids in the state of Ohio AND the US. 1% That's MY daughter folks!

Whew! Hopefully this will help take some of the sting out of tuition, as some of the schools she is interested in are a bit on the pricey side.

So far, the front runners are:

Michigan State

University of Dayton

Miami of Ohio

I think Kentucky is so-so on her list. (Sorry Kentucky ladies, I thought this would be a stronger sell for her. Not sure why it isn't.)

Still need to go see Indiana (Special shout out to my Hoosiers!) Mizzou (Possibly one of my biggest regrets in life- not looking at Mizzou seriously) Pitt and the latest addition to her list, Notre Dame. Um, I was a little thrown for a loop when Notre Dame got thrown into the mix the other day. It's up there with Michigan State on the sticker shock factor.) She also surprised me a bit when she casually mentioned having started an application to Hanover.

Man, this all makes me want to go to college all over again! Too fun!

This should have been my childhood...

I saw this today and loved it! For all of my talk about wanting to be in a dance-off with Justin Timberlake or some kind of break dancer, don't you agree that this should have been me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHnRIn74Ag

Or you can enjoy this clip that may provide insight as to my childhood. The funny thing is that sometimes, this is really like what it is like to collect the rent!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/the-landlord-from-will-ferrell-and-adam-ghost-panther-mckay