Random Chatter

1. I turned 28 last week and officially have allergies. My whole life when people complained of such things, I thought they were babies. The air bothers you? You poor thing. You should try real life. Now I am the one wheezing and sneezing to work, eyes puffy and watering, snot just a flowin'.

2. On Monday night, Kimmy and I were texting. She lives Norman, Oklahoma, the town right next to Moore. Her kids play in t-ball and softball leagues in Moore with other kids there. One of the players on the 7 year old t-ball team, named Jules, had lost everything. He has two other brothers, in which one of them is special needs. And to top it off, he is being raised by a single mom. There was also a sister of one of the teammates that could not be found, named Sydney.

Yesterday, Kimmy sends a bunch of bloggers information on Jules's family. Mama Laughlin posted information about him and a bunch of bloggers shared the contact information on instagram. As I was typing to my sister about her husbands team helping these t-ball players, Kimmy sends me a message that they found Sydney's body. My heart stopped.

After work, Kimmy calls and says that someone from CNN had seen all of the social media coverage for Jule's family. And they would like to interview Kimmy and Jules's mother. It's quite amazing how much exposure, and hopefully help, this family will get as a result.

In the meantime, Sydney's family needs help. The Moore Softball Association is taking donations to help the family. If you can help Sydney's or Jules's families, please donate to the Moore Rangers paypal donation fund: rangersmoore[at]gmail[dot]com -- Anyone who makes a donation this week will get a free sponsor spot on my blog for the month of June.

3. A few people have emailed me about working on that big blog post. I am still trucking along. There are just a lot of screen shots, which is taking me awhile. That and I am the biggest excuser-maker-upper of all time. After this weekend, it should be a tab at the top of my page filled with how-to's and blogging help.

4. Chris and I started the 300/30 Ab Challenge HERE. Today is only day three, but it hurts to turn or cough... which means this beer belly is going away. Big Holly will have some before and afters. Anyone wanna join up and do it together? You would only be two days behind us. I could handle doing it a few days more. I saw Shannon's results HERE and knew this was doable.

5. This weekend on the blog should be a fun one... I am hosting a scavenger hunt on my page. For all of you people who will be mentally checked out from work on Friday or those working from home that have ADD like me... you can win a $50 Target gift card for playing along. I'll post details tomorrow and the game starts Friday morning.

---

Emmy from the Swallow Flies is one of my new favorite reads. Chris and I are trying to get into meal planing and Emmy has so many great tips on her blog. She posts her grocery lists, reciepes, as well as workouts. After completing a couple of half marathons, she has a a FULL MARATHON under her belt. I am really impressed by her fitness journey and I think you will be too. Check out Emmy's instagram (@emmy815) and her blog HERE.

Ashley from Track Suit Friday has one of the funniest blogs around. I seriously heart this girl mucho grande. She could write about sitting on the couch watching a tv show and I would read every word-- and she would make it hilarious. Ashley posts a little bit of everything: married life, her dogs, and TURNING 30 (yesterday). Please check out her supa-funny blog HERE and her instagram (@theashley_e).

---

Happy Wednesday!!

You Can Take the Girl out of St. Louis...

My birthday week is over... tomorrow I will go back to talking about my crazy kids and fat rolls.

Last Thursday night, I flew out to Charleston, courtesy of my BFF Betsy to celebrate my 28th birthday. Truth be told, I really thought I was 28 all last year. Chris and I graduated high school a year apart, and he turned 29, so this whole time I was thinking I was 28.  But really his birthday is in September after the cut-off, so I was only 27 the whole time.

Let's just say it feels good to get a re-do.

Like I said, I have this friend Betsy-- the kind of friend all of us washed up, broke moms should have... who doesn't have a husband or children to spend her money on, therefor she just spends some of it on me. I'm glad I could be there for her..

Friday morning, I wake up in Charleston, which in a lot of ways reminded me of a cleaner Florida.  You could smell the ocean, seafood restaurants everywhere, and palm trees lining the streets. We loaded up in the car early Friday morning to grab some breakfast and head to the beach. Betsy didn't have beach chairs for us, so we had to stop by Target. On the way to Tar-jay, I get an email from them saying Natalia (The Modern Housewife) gifted me with an e-card. My lazy, drunk butt thanks you, Natalia. I was cozy on the beach all day.

I was clearly rocking the sexy beach waves like nobody's business.

My Friday recap: I ate pimento cheese sandwiches like it was the only way into Heaven. For breakfast, I had one toasted with fried green tomatoes and a fried egg... and lunch I had one grilled with a regular tomato. Bless my fat-girl heart.

Saturday, we went sightseeing and strolled through Market Place and Battery Park. For lunch, we ate out on a dock in front of a Carnival cruise ship. The waiter, who needed no persuasion his part, talked me into trying a John Daly. Sweet tea vodka with lemonade... like sweet nectar to my lips. This was after my usual Miller Lt and I was feeling toasty all over.

We did some more strolling. I was wearing shorts in public... and I think I was just buzzed enough not to care. We got back to the hotel and napped before my big birthday dinner.

One thing about Betsy... she is a foodie like me. For my birthday dinner, she made reservations at a restaurant called The Ordinary -- it was a James Beard award winner for Best New Restaurant. I checked out the menu-- no pimento cheese or fried green tomatoes, but lots of fresh seafood.

Fact: I don't eat seafood.

But Betsy wanted to take me to a fancy birthday dinner and I didn't want to be the overweight friend who just so happens not to eat meat or seafood. People have to look at me when I tell them, like you must be eatin' somethin'.

So I order the BBQ White Shrimp. I am thinking, it will probably come with rice like the Red Lobster commercials and I will cut it up into small enough pieces not to taste it too much. After I order, the waitress informs me that the shrimp come out with the heads and tails attached.

They have heads? No worries, she will show me how to cut off the head and squeeze it up through the tail. At this point, I just want Taco Bell.

So here come the shrimp with mother f'ing eyeballs dangling off of them in my shrimp sauce.

For a good five minutes, I tried to follow their instructions and cut off the head and squeeze the tail. It was really mind over matter trying to wedge the shrimp through the stickly little feet. After losing my appetitie and my pride, I told the waitress that I was just a hillbilly from St. Louis... and could anyone back there (maybe the chef) do this hard work for me? A few minutes later, they brought out the ready to eat shrimp in the sauce.

I will say that it was a very good sauce. Almost like a yellow curry. My review on shrimp? They don't taste like anything. Then Betsy had them bring me out a lemon dessert with a lit candle. And I was back in Hog Heaven.

Also, as a side school lesson... if anyone ever confuses how to spell desert or dessert... just remember that you only want to go to the desert once (one "s"), but you always want dessert twice (two "s's").

Overall, the food was AMAZING and The Low Country boys looked AMAZING (sunglasses necklaces and all) and my best friend is AMAZING.

With that being said, I don't want to weigh myself this morning. I was thinking about doing it anyway, but I'm in such a good mood, that I'll just post it tomorrow. That will give me another day to chew on some fiber pills and deliver this pimento cheese baby.

This was hands down, the best birthday of my life. Thank you everyone for the happy birthday wishes on Chris's post, on instagram, facebook, and even my friends who sent me gifts, cards, and emails. I feel LOVED.

---

Now enough about me for once... check out some of my favorite bloggers.

Beth from Hang On, Honey... a girl after my own heart. Beth is getting ready to be a huge blogger. Her blog has grown so much in just the last month alone because she isn't the best kept secret anymore. What I like about Beth's blog is that she actually has some substance to her post. She is witty and real... and if I could eat her up, I would. Please check out Beth's instagram (@hangonhoney) and her blog HERE.

Amy from A Diary of a Fat Mommy is a work from home mom of two. She is trying to get back to her skinny self, after many ups and downs with her weight. I like that Amy keeps it real and pokes fun of herself along the way. I just found her instagram over the weekend and spent some good airport time creeping. Check out her instagram (@thediaryofafatmommy) and her blog HERE.

---

Happy Monday!!

B-Day Tribute

Attention:  This is Hubby Jack!

I did a Holly birthday tribute over at my blog.

Come on by and wish Holly happy birf-day!

click HERE

The Surprise

Thank you to all of the ladies who participated in the Share Your Favorite Birthday linkup. Chrissy, Lindsey and I went through them and it came down to three girls.... but we decided the winner was....

Rachel from Rachel Runs Her Mouth! 

Yay for Rachel! You have been emailed your $50 Kiki La 'Rue gift certificate. Rachel is hilarious... and definitely a Stanfield favorite. Please check her out HERE.

But I didn't want the two runner-ups to leave empty handed.... So Kira from She Can't Shut Up and Jen from Capitol Tales each won free ad space on my blog next month. :)

Thanks for playing, ladies!

---

Yesterday at work, we celebrated my birthday. Like I mentioned before, my best friend is my co-worker Joan, who happens to be 50 and completely coo-coo for cocoa puffs. There are some days when we are in love with each other... and other days where we know better than saying a word.

Anyway, I have shared what I did for Joan's 50th birthday HERE... and she has been scheming since. So yesterday, we're all out for Mexican and she hands me a wrapped box and a card. I open the card first and everyone from work had signed the card and wrote little messages. Then on the side of the card was a list of names. Like a really random list of names. People from college, my best friends, a girl from high school that I haven't talked to in at least 10 years, and even some blog friends.

I asked Joan, "How do you know these people?" And she said, "Just open up your gift."

So I get the box open and from the outside it looks like a photo album. I am sitting across from my boss and I am thinking he doesn't need to see The Big Holly Hot Mess Express pictures from college. But what was actually inside was a cookbook (that I opened while eating the homemade ice cream she made me too).

Joan had gotten on her facebook, which that in itself could be a whole post. Joan doesn't know anything about anything on facebook or even my blog for that matter. Her logging in, when she can remember her password, is an accomplishment.

Well come to find out, she went to my page and clicked on my friends list. You know the friends list that is over populated with people that you met one time at a party 7 years ago? People from high school.... Frienemies.... Everyone.

Instead of clicking on people that wrote on my wall, she just pulled up the whole friend list and then started sending them private messages, at random, asking for recipes. But she had no idea what she was doing, then got paranoid that her messages to these people would show up on my wall, so she stopped after only sending a few. :)

I'm sure people from high school that she messaged probably thought, oh that poor Holly has no friends if this looney toon is emailing me.

But a lot of people responded to her... some even saying they don't know how to cook (cough, Nancy Clue)... and even blog friends that I haven't met in real life, but are facebook/text buddies like Meredith from Is This Thing On?.

I wish I knew everyone that submitted a recipe... But Joan lost track and kept deleting the messages so that I wouldn't see them. LOL. So if you are someone who sent one in for my cookbook.... THANK YOU. It really made my whole week.

Tonight, I am kicking off the birthday weekend with a bang. My best friend Betsy is flying me out to Charleston, South Carolina. I leave tonight after work. and come home on Sunday morning to celebrate my actual birthday-birthday with the kids. I think I am packed and ready to go. Chris is probably ready for a break too.... aka Taco Bell for the next three days.

I have to say that I have it made in the shade when it comes to husbands. He really runs the show around here. He went somewhere one time and was giving me the breakdown of how to do bath and bedtime on my own. "And Olive likes to have the cup with the rubber top, but only give it to her after she is in her crib." I was like, I am her mother. I birthed her out of my vagina. I promise she will live in my care alone. So a big THANK YOU to old Tina the Diva.

This has already been the best birthday, ever.

Happy Thursday!

Boozin' and Ho'in

Thank you everyone who joined the birthday linkup. It's open through noon today. Tonight we'll go through and pick a winner. That person will be announced in the morning.

The Finish the Sentence winners were : Bold Butter Baby, Molly Mo, and TimBob (who left his answers in the comments). Email Jake to get your gift cards: jake[dot]gerrad[at]gmail[dot]com

---

Last night, Melanie invited me over to her Real Housewives of St. Louis house for margaritas and spray tans for my birthday. Our friend Laura-who-doesn't-have-a-blog was also there for drinky-drinks.

I have only had one spray tan in my life. I got it 5 years ago, the week of my wedding. At the end of my wedding night, the inside of the dress was brown and had to be tossed. Being a pregnant bride, that was the least of my problems, but I have always wanted to try it again.

Melanie's step sister came over and sprayed us. I'm hooked. I never want to be anything but bronze for the rest of my life. And the icing on the cake was that Laura got Big Holly some Busch Light. I scream class. I seriously love this little blogging world and all of the people that I have met. Mel and Laura made Tuesday night of my birthday week AWESOME. :)

Anyway, tonight I plan to have a lazy night on the couch, watching all of my shows that are ending this week. We are also having the toilet fixed tonight... which means that Buzz Lightyear and 12 of Olive's binkies are about to be discovered.

--

Now for some inspiration on a Wednesday morning...

Lori from Fat to Fit is one of my new favorites to follow on instagram (@fattofit41). She has lost over 115 pounds! Lori posts the most motivating pictures... and is such a good reminder of what some hard work can do to your body (look at her stomach!). Please check out Lori's blog HERE.

And next up is Taylor from Mama Tay LeMay. Her and I have been blog friends for months now and I have seen her get smaller and smaller. She works out, food preps, and documents it all on her blog. Taylor is going to be at her goal weight in no time. Check out her progress on her blog HERE or on her instagram (@mamataylemay).

---

Happy Wednesday! It's my birthday lunch at work today. Big girl fun will be had by all. :)