Easter Festivities

This weekend has been a VERY busy one and I can not believe it is already Sunday night.  I can already tell this is going to be along week and I am going to be tired these next few days.  The fact that it was about a year ago that I documented last year's Easter weekend absolutely blows my mind!  And from what I hear, that feeling only get worse as you get older.  Not cool.  

Friday evening I went to dinner with some friends and we rented "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  Have any of you seen it?  It was pretty good.  REALLY long.  I didn't know what it was about beforehand so I was lost for a good part of the beginning of the movie.  I also don't advise watching it with your younger siblings.  Or your parents.  If your catchin' my drift here.  But I recommend it if you have some free time?are in the movie mood.

A short 4 hours after the movie ended, my friend and faithful running buddy, Margaret, arrived at the pink house to pick me up and head to Atlanta for The Color Run.  We hit the road about 5:20 am (rather than a hoped for 5:00 am because I was running late, of course), and arrived on site about 8:40 am.  Just in time for a 9:00 am start. Neither of really knew what to expect about this race other than we though it looked cool online.  For every kilometer you run, you get pelted with a handful of colored cornstarch.  At the end of the race everyone is coated in the stuff.  Note to future runners: if you get separated from your buddy before the finish line, it is even harder to find them than it is to find Waldo.  Because everyone is absolutely covered in the exact same stuff and you are 'required' to wear white it is nearly impossible to single anyone out.  Luckily though Margaret and I were only separated for like 10 minutes.  Here's some pics. of how the race went.

This is by far the largest race I have ever been a part of.  I am used to the Auburn size of a few hundred at most.  It was expected that over 10,000 participants were there yesterday.  I doubt there were actually that many, but there were definitely a lot of people!  This picture shows everyone in front of us in line.  We were in the 3rd wave and I think there were 7 or 8 waves.  

These guys were in front of us for a little ways and I just had to snap a pic.!  haha

There were major bottlenecks at each color station because some people were really intent on getting a good handful of color.  Margaret and I kinda scooted on by but managed to still get colored.  Enough for our liking anyways!

The purple station

This was the post race, "like Christmas morning", color madness mosh pit where we got to throw colors on each other.  I was obviously not a part of this scene.  I took the by-stander approach.  I kept my color packet for a keepsake.  I'm lame I know.  

Here we are pre race.  

AAAnd, unfortunately I can not locate our post race photo on my camera.  Yes it's still on the fritz.  

Just imagine us each with a splash of yellow, green, pink, and purple on our shirts and faces.  Perfect!

After we got back to Auburn, showered and grabbed a quick lunch at Firehouse, we hit the road again and headed to Greenville for Easter celebrations with my family and some friends.  Last night we had a crowd of around 20 people over for my Dad's "famous" Low country boil.  It was a great time to catch up with family and some friends I haven't seen in a while!

Yesterday afternoon we dyed eggs for a fun and festive way to decorate for the party and hide/hunt for the kiddos!  

Theresa got really creative with the wax crayon!  (catch the sarcasm there?!)

And this here would be the "Magical Glitter Shaker".  No longer are children satisfied with colored eggs.  Nope.  Now they even have to be rolled in glitter!  But not just rolled in glitter anywhere, but in the one and only glitter shaker.    

Maire's favorite variation was the two-tone egg.  

Check out the shimmer there!  The glitter eggs were pretty cool!

And of course the 1 egg I got to dye.  It had some pretty cool rubber band art, but unfortunately the photographer....ahemm Theresa....got me instead of the egg.  Oh and check out that new T I got there!  

I am now so full, yes still, that I don't think I will eat for days.  Over and out.     

PWPWPWPWPW

So for those of you who don't know, you might think the title of this post refers to multiple gun shots. or terrible spelling.  or maybe even a cool noise you could make.  But for those of you who know, or just so happened to read the past few posts here, you know exactly what I am referring to.

Yes that is me. Yes that is Ree Drummond.  Yes I have an embarassingly large grin on my face.  Yes she is the Pioneer Woman.  Yes I got her to write "Go Pokes" in my cookbook.  Yes she is precious.  And yes, we are now bff's.  

My friend Kat and I drove two whole hours to Birmingham yesterday evening/afternoon to see with our very own eyes the Pioneer Woman herself.  When we arrived we received a number.......

Ree appeared at 6 pm sharp and started the evening with a precious powerpoint presentation of who she is and how she got started.  Then she started signing books.  We knew since we had a rather high number it would be a while before we got to see her.  So we watched her sign the first few books.  At this point I was still pretty intrigued as this was my first ever book signing.  So she signed.  and signed.  and got photographed. and we waited and waited.  and she signed and signed.  and more pictures were taken.  and then we shopped and shopped.  she signed.  we tried on diamonds.  she signed.  then we decided to spice things up a bit.  we walked across the street and drank delicious margaritas and ate a wonderful meal.  

I had the pomegranate margarita (excellent choice I might add) and Kat had the strawberry one.  We ate at a place right outside the BAM Ree was at.  It was called Cocina Superior and claimed to be "modern texmex". All of the food and beverages were delicious!

I ordered the fish tacos, made with tilapia.  mmmmm.  \

Keep in mind Ree is still signing at this point in the evening. 

After we were stuffed to the max, we headed back over to BAM.  they were only at umber.....take a guess.  Like 208.  Meaning we had a solid hour wait time STILL.  But, we hopped in line and waited along with the rest of the dedicated people willing to hang out in a bookstore until 11 pm for those 60 seconds of talk time.  

Did I mention we were at the rear of the line?  As in there were literally four (4) people in line after us.  I feel like that takes talent.  Only a special talent really gifted people like myself possess.  

And then finally it happened.  Right around 10:40ish.  We arrived at the front of the line.  Or I suppose you could look at it as everyone else had simply left the line.  haha.  Either way, we made it.  And each of us, Kat, Morgan, and I, got to have our books signed and got to chat with Ree for a few seconds.  We each got individual photo opps and then we even got a group shot. 

 It was glorious!  

We had to fill out a post it note and put on the inside flap of the book denoting what we wanted her to sign.  Being that she and I are both OSU fans, I thought it more than appropriate to of course have her personalize it to me, but to also add "Go Pokes!"  

We definitely bonded over the pokes.  It was great.

The drive home was miserable.  Mainly because I am like an old woman and require a 10 o" clock bedtime.  Driving from 11 to 1 is not in my repertoire.  

 But all in all, the trip was so worth it.  I got to spend time with a wonderful friend (Kat).  Catch up with a long lost friend (Morgan).  and meet a celebrity (Ree).  I think all of that definitely equals success. 

And hopefully more book signings are in my future.  It really was so fun!!