Gal Pals + Food + Fun = Girls Weekend!

For the last couple of years, my gal pals over at Going Jane and Bathtub Mama and I have been getting together at least once a year (maybe twice if we can swing it) to shop, scrapbook, talk and generally laugh our butts off at a Girls Weekend (GW).

Last year we TRIED to re-live our college days with a little too much rum, lots of chocolate, and some late-night crank calls to the hubbies (theirs, not my imaginary guy - he never answered). Unfortunately we re-lived the bad, as well as the good. WARNING: Never, ever drink rum from a Listerine bottle. Trust me on this one!

This time the gals are each bringing their daughters so there will probably be a little less re-living of the glory years, but still lots of fun.

Basically, I live smack dab in the middle - a four-hour drive for each - so this year GW is rocking my place.

Right now, I'm channeling the Pointer Sisters..."I'm So Excited and I Just Can't Hide It!!" (Imagine me singing and dancing through the house. OK, maybe you shouldn't.)

I already have some of our weekend planned.

Last GW just happened to fall while New Moon was in theaters. Since the new Twilight movie - Eclipse - won't be out until NEXT weekend, we have to fill our time with other activities.

I do have some movie theater gift certificates that I got a rockin' deal on recently at CVS and Toy Story 3 is in theaters so maybe we'll trade Edward and Jacob for Woody and Buzz.

Or there's always Redbox (I heart Redbox, as they say over at GOODEness Gracious) where we could go with Remember Me and still get our Edward fix!

In non-movie news...I was totally excited to learn that one of Bathtub Mama's and my favorite haunts when she's up from her southern home is having a monster of a sale this weekend! Half Price Books is having a huge clearance sale at the state fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday and we are SOOO there. Everything is under $3. Awesome.

Add in some swimming time and all that left is figuring out how we'll feed ourselves!

I've been drooling over a multitude of recipes in the blogsphere and have decided to attempt at least one or two this weekend.

First, I've stocked up on biscuits so we can gorge ourselves on Going Jane's strawberry freezer jam. I'm also going to attempt a variation of The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon toast with English Muffins - an ode to my days out East. I also have a wide variety of cereals that I have gotten for a steal so we are good to go for breakfast.

I'm taking advantage of the homegrown ground beef (hamburger) in the freezer and doing tacos or spaghetti or maybe loaded nachos...dishes the wee ones will enjoy as much as we will.

For dessert, I've been craving these Grasshopper Cupcakes over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff since I joined the Cupcake Carnival earlier this week!

Of course, it wouldn't be a weekend visit to my house without going out at least once (usually more than that). Bathtub Mama and I always hit Ruby Tuesday's for their delish salad bar and I have a coupon so here we come.

I'm sure some Malibu will find its way into our Diet Cokes & Coke Zeros so maybe, just maybe, there will be some dancing as well..."to the windows, to the walls."

Books & a Movie: A Near Perfect Evening

One of my BFFs (Going Jane) came to visit me this week, which is a rare but awesome occurrence. After cooking for her the night before (check out my last blog post), we went out to dinner with Brat (aka Frugalista Farm Life) at Rock Bottom and made a meal from their $5 appetizers - I highly recommend their pretzels and spicy cheesy spinach dip!

Then we hit the used bookstore! If you LOVE to read - like my friends and I do - then you MUST seek out the used bookstore(s) in your area.

I'm lucky to be close to not one, but two, Half Price Books locations (HPB) and I visit them frequently. It's much more fun to go with friends who share my love of reading and such was the case this week.

As you can see, I hit the jackpot! First, I found a copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Going Jane was quite jealous because she just bought her copy at full-price! I love, love, love The Pioneer Woman's blog and had been wanting to get her book for a while now.

I'm headed on vacation in a couple of weeks so I needed some good "by the pool" reads. My co-worker, LH, loaned me a copy of The Help and I'm excited to read it after two fellow bloggers (3 kids and lots of pigs and Alarm Clock Wars) said they had read and enjoyed it.

I also picked up The Prince of Nantucket because I lived just off Cape Cod for a year working for cranberry growers (I'll talk more about that another time) and usually enjoy novels set in that area, as well as The Letters because I enjoy Luanne Rice novels.  

As you can see I also grabbed a copy of Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts. I'm a HUGE Nora Roberts fan and actually already have bought, read and loaned out the first three books in her Bride Quartet (and I desperately want to pre-order the final installment). This copy is for my BFF Bathtub Mama who is looking for her own set after reading my copies! I have found her the first two at HPB. If you like Nora Roberts' earlier romance novels - then you'll love this series. They are an entertaining, easy, enjoyable read.

I also picked up some of romance novels from authors I enjoy reading - including Sandra Brown, Sara Orwig and Maureen Child. These are what I like to read when I just want to turn off my brain and relax. No deep storylines here, but I enjoy them!

The best part of the trip to HPB...notification of their upcoming Memorial Day sale! Nothing better than 20 percent off books already at half-price or less!

As if the shopping trip wasn't enough, we also stopped by the Red Box (don't you love them?) and rented a couple of movies even though it was a work night! We settled on watching Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges.

Usually I'm leery about movies that critics like and that win awards - I'm not always impressed, but both Going Jane and I are country music fans (she more than I) so it was a good choice. It didn't hurt that Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell (oh, he's so bad that he's so good) were in it too.

The movie was good, the company even better, so it was a great end to a great evening.