Favorite Things!

AND A GIVEAWAY AT THE END!

Get excited! I'm the next Oprah.

I had originally wanted to do this on Friday, but then decided to wait until this week because:

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary! It doesn't seem possible. I don't feel old enough to have been married for 8 years. 

So in honor of that, I present the very first ever (here) FAVORITE THINGS! 

 None of y'all are getting cars. Sorry. 

 Though the giveaway is pretty awesome.

Obligatory first favorite:*

The husband. He is literally the best person I know. We've been together almost 11 years and I still have big, shmoopy, puppy love for him. He's pretty awesome. 

 Seriously. We look like 17 here.

This is my favorite one b/c we are just cracking each other up about how weird it was to be married.

 

*I promise no sappy declarations of love each time. 

 

2.) Mizuno Wave Riders 13 

The first shoe that doesn't hurt me when I trot along. I have weak ankles that want to roll out vs normal ankles that roll in (pronate.) M says physiologically this makes no sense b/c the ligaments on the outside of your ankle are much stronger. Yet another way my body defies medicine. 

 

3.) Reef d-lish

 

I have been wearing these non-stop since 2007. Now, sadly, this is D-lish 2. The first one doesn't have that little silver tab and look a little 'dressier'. It is hard to tell from the picture, but the upper is leather and super soft. When I bought them the first time they were like $20. The bottom is like this pillowy soft bed that actually has arch support (nonexistent in flops, unfortunately) and then molds to your feet. For you, my lovely readers, I did the hardship of purchasing the updates since you can't buy the old ones anymore (sob!) I do this for you. I can report that they are just as soft and awesome as the original. You are welcome. 

 

 You know that a flop has to be magical and wonderful for me to pay $30 for flip-flops. 

4.) Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color

I have these in so many colors. It does dry very fast AND has this wide/fat brush that makes it so much easier to do your nails. Though I pretty much exclusively use it on my toes. 

 

Cheap, fast, easy.

My life's motto. 

5. Rhapsody/I-tunes 

Not much to say here. I could not work out without music! I actually use Rhapsody b/c it is like $15/month and has unlimited song downloads. 

6. Camelbak

Here in AL it gets very hot, very early. It is 88 degrees outside right now! I love my little Camelbak holder b/c it insulates and gives me something to hold onto. Usually when I run outside I run loops so that I don't get too far away from my water (and car, just in case I hurt myself. Which, let's be honest, happens frequently.) I don't really run long distances such that I need to carry water on me, but this is a good compromise.

 

 Onto the fun stuff! 

Since it is my anniversary, I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway! 

 

Wait, that's backwards. Y'all should send me presents. 

 

I'm giving away:

*Camelbak bottle with holder

*Sally Hansen nail polish

*$25 Itunes or Rhapsody gift card.

Which ever you prefer.

 

All you have to do to enter is the following-one entry per item, leave me a comment for each item, etc

1.) Follow/become a follower of my awesome blog.

2.) Tweet a link to this sweet giveaway.

3.) Post a link on your blog. 

So that is 3 entries per person! And the entry pool is pretty small ; ) 

Entry ends 6/1! Tell your friends! I will announce a winner on 6/2

This will never not be funny to me

 

 I giggle every time I see it. 

Check back tomorrow for anniversary shmoopiness, and an awesome giveaway! *

  

*assuming  my second boot camp doesn't kill me first. So it is about 50/50.  It hurts me to lift my arms to type this.  

The happiest place on Earth

Technically, that is Disney and Harry Potter is at Universal. But I don't care. Twas magical. I'm waiting on M to actually run so that I can. He is doing the taxes, so I can't really complain. Not sure how a former accountant managed to give the job of taxes to her MD husband, but I'm pretty proud of my accomplishment. Since he has like 6 W2s I think this is fair.

So I'm posting pictures to kill time. Enjoy! A bit of warning-these are really only interesting if you love Harry Potter. There are so many little details from the books/movies!

Hogwarts Castle! I'm in full on pushing and running mode at this point. Out of my way small children!

 

I'm pretty sure this is what Heaven looks like. At Honeydukes. There was so much glorious candy. I never wanted to leave.

Candy Stairway!

House points. These are all in line in the castle for the Forbidden Journey ride. It has so many little details and cool things. But it is super dark!

Several of the portraits are actually screens, so they are moving and talking just like in the books. It goes up quite high! Several were complaining about Dumbledore letting so many muggles into Hogwarts.

Dumbledore's pensieve 

His office. You can barely tell but there is another screen projecting from the balcony. Dumbledore talks to you! It actually looks 3D when you are there. The line is all twisty and you go into multiple different rooms. I literally gasped "DUMBLEDORE!" loudly as we walked in. I am such a nerd. 

In front of the castle. There is a nice little bridge where you can take pictures. 

This one is for you, Naomi!!!

We went through the castle twice. The line was super short, so we were moving quickly. If you are going, definitely go through the rides more than once. I saw so much more the second time. Like the dragon skeleton hanging from the ceiling.  Of course, the second time the ride broke while we were on it! We just sat there for about 30 mins until they just turned everything off and drove us out. It was pretty interesting to see all the behind the scenes stuff. The ride was broken for the rest of the day though, so we didn't get to do it again.

 Hogsmeade.

Enjoying a delicious butterbeer! They were like a butterscotch icee. Even M liked it and he doesn't like sweet things.

Ok, I have maybe 100 more, but I doubt anyone really wants to see all the minutia of Harry Potter World. It was great! Rather small though, unfortunately. Most of the shops of Hogsmeade you can't actually go into. So the entire park is basically the castle, a dueling dragons roller coaster which has a bunch of stuff from GoF, 3 Broomsticks, a gift shop/Ollivander's, Zonkos/Honeydukes. And the shops are small since that is how they were envisioned. I wanted it to be like a million times bigger. We were lucky and the crowds weren't bad at all. Helps to go on a Monday in late January!