My First NASCAR Race

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon/evening down at RIR for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. This was my first race and I had a great time! We both did! We had fantastic seats that our friend, Stephen, shared with us --we all went together-- and we had great people sitting around us...that always helps!

We got there around 2:30 or so, didn't have too far of a walk to get to the track, and just went straight up to our seats.  Before we even got there, I asked Matt, "do you think they'll have Dippin' Dots?" (priorities, people!) He didn't know for sure, but naturally, the FIRST food/drink stand I saw was indeed Dippin' Dots, and it was literally right underneath our seats! haha.

When the race was finally getting started (I never thought 7:15pm would come along..), I was really excited! Throughout the first few laps (and by few, I mean about 65, haha), I thought, "Oh my gosh....it's going to take foreverrrr to get to 400!!" but it actually went by a lot faster than I thought! I enjoyed it more than I thought, too!

It was cool to see just HOW fast their cars are going during the race, and to also see the sparks on the tires in person. There was always excitement to see what was going to happen and how quickly would the sparks be put out.

At the end of the night, I may have been dead tired, but I would definitely go to another race! It was a fun experience and I'm really glad we had the opportunity to go :)

Just follow the blimp and you'll get there!

Here ya go..if you missed it when I posted this Saturday, here are my delicious chocolate Dippin Dots!

 I still think this stage is really neat, haha.

 Right before the race started, parachuters were coming down, and I love these pictures I got of the one carrying the flag:

That last one is my favorite!

I couldn't get over the pretty colors in the sky throughout the evening--these next couple are my favorites to look at.

Having a great time!

Post race burnout on one end...

....and fireworks on the other!

Wicked!

Several months ago, Mom got tickets for her, Abby and me to see Wicked! We went this past Thursday with a group of students and staff from Highland Springs HS, and let me just tell you, it was fantastic!

Our seats were in the balcony, front row, and I loved our view! I love looking down on performances because there's so much to see that you may miss when sitting on ground level. To start, the Altria Theater is just so pretty inside!

I am in the middle of reading Wicked, and I wasn't quite halfway through when we went to see the performance on Thursday, so I knew it'd be a bit of a spoiler for me, but I didn't care! There were so many things that I had already read that weren't shown, and what I've read since seeing the show Thursday has shown me that a few things were changed for the musical. It'll be interesting to see the differences as I continue reading the book. (I won't give too many details here, since I know some people may not have read the book yet or are still waiting to go see Wicked!)

I knew that Wicked was the history of the witches, but there were some parts of the show where I remember my jaw literally dropped when something was revealed and I was thinking, "who would've EVER thought that connection?!" It even showed how some of the events of Wicked overlapped with those of the Wizard of Oz! It was amazing!! 

Here's us after the show! 2 thumbs up from me!! I'd definitely recommend it, and I would SO see it again!!

Two Thumbs Up to Capital Ale House

It's rare these days that I receive GREAT customer service, so after an experience yesterday, I have to share it with you all!

Yesterday morning, I saw on my Facebook newsfeed that the Flying Squirrels posted this picture saying that you could go to any of the three Richmond Capital Ale House locations, purchase a beer--particularly Chin Music, the new beer of the Richmond Flying Squirrels--and get the glass for free, until glasses ran out! I knew Matt would be all over this. However, since newsfeeds get all jacked up sometimes, even though I saw that post on Thursday morning, it was really posted Wednesday afternoon. So, I was afraid that was only a Wednesday evening thing.

Anyway, I waited until later in the day and called the downtown Capital Ale House to find out more info. I spoke to an employee named Derek who was EXTREMELY helpful! I told him I had seen the post on Facebook and wanted to know if that was just something that was going on Wednesday, or was it still going on. He said the free glass with purchase of a beer was over, but they were still selling the glasses they had left for $2 a piece.  I asked if he thought they'd still have any left by Thursday evening, and he said they should still have some by then, but I could tell he didn't want to promise anything to me. Finally, he said, "well, you said you're definitely coming tonight, right?" And I told him I was. He said, "I can reserve some for you and put your name on them....how many would you like?" I asked for 4, he took my name, and he said they'd be waiting whenever I got there. I was so excited and thanked him a bunch of times for being so helpful!

I called Matt once I got off the phone with him and told him the glasses weren't free anymore, but I had four reserved for $2, but you know Matt, that's a steal for glasses, as he said! haha

Later yesterday evening, we finally decided to head out. When we got there and looked over the menus, Matt saw two names at the top and said, "Well, looks like you spoke to the executive chef today when you called!" Sure enough. ha. No big deal, I just thought it was pretty cool.  We ordered 2 things of fries to eat while we were there--we'd already eaten dinner--which were DELICIOUS, had a wonderful server AND, the best part? We ended up getting the glasses for free anyway! Talk about a great night!

Our First Yard Sale

Today, we had our first yard sale at our house and it was VERY successful! The weather was perfect, we had a great turnout, and definitely came out way ahead with our earnings! (Yep...really excited about that! haha)

We've been planning this yard sale for several months now, as we're still moving stuff to our house from our parents' houses.  It had gotten to the point where I was finally okay with parting with stupid stuff (I'll probably never need my French workbook from two years ago again...) and we just had a lot of good stuff that other people could get use out of!

When we told people we were having a yard sale, we got a lot of mixed reactions, from "Oh, good! Let me know when it is." to, "but you've only been there a year...how do you have stuff to get rid of already?" Well, put it this way, 75% of the stuff at our yard sale never had a spot in our house other than an assigned "Yard Sale Box." The only things we actually DID use at some point while living here, were clothing items, which we had a lot of! It got to the point where we were like, "no, whatever, they can think what they want (because everyone always will), but they don't realize this is all stuff we don't even use! It has to go!

We honestly spent the whole week preparing for our sale: I made posters, Matt hung them up; we set the tables up in our garage so we could organize everything, and we were out there every night this week, except Thursday, setting up. I made signs so everything was labeled--and I will totally accept the compliment a lady gave, when she came through and said this was the most organized yard sale she'd ever seen! You better believe it was!

Sidenote: I was really glad Mom got here early this morning to help us set up, because we still had some things that needed to be labeled (because they were things we just picked up last night! haha--and she helped us make some signs to hang, too. Thanks, Mom :)

In addition to all of our clothes, we had a lot of old (but still really good!) toys, books, dorm room/housewares items (can we talk about how excited I was when someone bought the phone that I only used in my room as a RA? haha), lamps, etc., etc. Mom also had a couple of tables set up, and Abby had some things that I mixed in with mine--but don't worry, we kept track of which of her items sold so that she'll get her proper earnings ;)  We also had a couple of TVs that we were getting rid of.  To show that they were working, Matt brought out our DVD player and had movies playing all morning. We watched Finding Nemo, Frozen and Shrek. If anything, I'm glad that TV didn't sell, because watching the movies made sitting out there a lot more fun!

I'm so glad our yard sale date finally arrived, because I had boxes sitting in my room upstairs that I couldn't wait to get out! Now, the room feels a little bit more open now that the boxes aren't just sitting there taking up space!

After our last customers came through, we boxed up everything that was left. Even with all of the items that were sold throughout the day, we STILL filled up the back of Matt's truck with boxes and bags that we took to Goodwill! I find it cool, because I buy most of my dress pants at Goodwill now--because you can finally some really good name brand pants that have barely been worn!--and I sent about seven pair of Goodwill dress pants back to Goodwill today. Time for someone else to get some good use out of them :)

Craft Show Finds

Last weekend, Matt, Mom and I went to the Bizarre Bazaar. I like walking around the craft shows, but I usually don't find much that I have to have. This time around, I was very excited to find something I'd been looking for for a long time!

We had this bean bag filled with cherry pits that you could heat up in the microwave, and use when your back, legs, shoulder, etc. hurt. I would always use it for my headaches, of course. I miss having one to conveniently use all the time, so I was thrilled to find a stand of them at the craft show!! I actually ended up using it for the first time this morning, haha.

Matt also found a great Corn Hole stand with boards and bags galore. He's been meaning to get some new bags, anyway, to go along with the Longwood Corn Hole boards he made, so he picked up some blue & gray ones!

So, at the end of the day, we spent about $40 on fabric and dried corn! Hahaha. I found that so hilarious while we were there!
But, it was well worth the money spent!

We also picked up a few dip mixes---those are my FAVORITE to get! I can't wait to make the ones we got! :)

Favorite TV Shows

Sometimes I feel like I'm just at a loss for what I should blog about…probably because I know or think I won't have any good pictures to include with it! Then, on days like today, something just kind of comes to me while I'm at work, and I decide I don't care if I have my own pictures to include or not.

 

Today, I thought I would share some of the TV shows I enjoy watching.  I will honestly plan my evening schedules around what I'm already doing (bells, volleyball, etc.) so that I can still be home (and most likely in bed) in time to watch these great shows! 

 

On Monday nights, I'm definitely home in time to watch Dancing with the Stars…..and I'll probably be texting Mom throughout those 2 hours talking about whether or not we liked the dances and who just needs to go home! Haha.

 

 

On Tuesdays, Chopped is usually on all evening on Food Network—Matt got me hooked on that show  years ago, and I love it! My favorite judges on the show include: Alex Guarnaschelli, Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Zakarian and Marc Murphy. Now, the new season of 19 Kids and Counting is back on, so I'm waiting every week to watch that show now! AND, it was just announced today that one of the older girls, Jill, is now engaged!

On Wednesdays, Matt and I will usually watching both of these shows on ABC Family together. Melissa & Joey and Baby Daddy are so great! Lately, on Melissa & Joey, they've been bringing in fun guest stars, like Joey Lawrence's younger brother Andy, last week, and tonight, two of Melissa Joan Hart's previous co-stars from Sabrina-the college years- will be on there! Can't wait! Baby Daddy is also really funny—plus, I love Chelsea Kane and Melissa Peterman!

 

 

Thursday and Friday nights tend to be good movie nights on ABCFamily. I love watching movies, and ABCFamily is my favorite channel to watch them on! (Especially around Christmastime, but you all already knew that ;)

 

Annnnd, similar to Thursday and Friday evenings, if we're home on the weekends, ABCFamily will usually be on, so we can have movies on in the background. Sometimes, if we're trying to be productive, this can be a bit of a distraction...haha.