Sweeney Todd - Loving Date Night

Ever since the movie came out, I've been wanting to see Johnny Depp's depiction of Sweeney Tood - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I love musicals, I love plays, I love theater, and I love Johnny Depp, so I knew it would be good. I think the movie even won awards. However, I haven't stopped to actually watch the movie yet. It's still in my plan of things to do.

Nevertheless, I'm uber excited to see the theater version of Sweeney Todd tomorrow at the Memphis Theater.

Kelly and I have a fabulous date night planned. First, we will use the Folks Folly gift certificate my father in law, Larry gave to us for our wedding (1.5+ years ago). Yummy expensive eats. Then, we will make our way to the Memphis Theater for the 8pm performance of Sweeney Todd. I'm so excited!!! It should be super fun and entertaining.

Kelly also informed me that he helped direct, or was in (I can't remember, sorry honey) Sweeney Todd during his younger years. So he's very familiar with this show. I've only read things about it. Never seen it. So I'm in for a treat. I think I'll watch the movie this weekend after seeing the depiction of the show on stage.

Update: Sweeney Todd at the Memphis Theater was great last night. We really enjoyed it. If you like the theater and musicals are your thing, go have a date night or a random night out and support your local theater.

McGugan Family Reunion

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu

I cannot believe that the McGugan family reunion has already come and gone. Wow. It seems like it just arrived, and with a whirlwind, we have already completed it.

I've been absent from my blog for awhile now. It has been over a full week since my last post, but I have good cause as to the delay. For the past six plus days I have been attending and participating in the McGugan family reunion.

What an experience! What an awesome experience! I married into the McGugan family on March 17, 2007. Because the family has a reunion every four (4) years, until this point I have been unable to meet the full extended McGugan family and participate in a McGugan family reunion. For months, I have been poking fun of the fact that I join the family when the reunion is practically in our back yard (Memphis), but missed out (wasn't part of Kelly's life then) on the Bermuda location four years ago. Memphis vs. Bermuda - why would they want to come here, I thought.

I didn't know what to expect. What would we do? In Memphis? What would the people be like? Four official days doing what? Would I enjoy it? I had even asked some of the family members I interacted with on facebook - What should I expect? They gave me clues like: lot of hugs, lots of talking, some drinking, laughs, etc. But what would that really look like, I asked myself.

Well, I was more than pleasantly surprised. What a great time!!!

The busyness and fun began on Thursday as most of the family arrived into Memphis. I would call Thursday the "meet and greet" session of the reunion. It was amazing how I recognized so many faces already through our facebook group page interaction. Family would walk up, I'd smile big, feeling like I knew them, but struggled to remember which name went with what face. We'd introduce ourselves, hug in an embrace, and let the socializing begin. My brother in law (Kevin) and father in law (Larry) cooked out ribs for us. Yum Yum! Great, homecookin BBQ to start the festivities.

Throughout the four official days of the reunion (Oct. 10 - Oct. 13), we ate together, laughed together, visited together, toured Memphis together, took hundreds of pictures together, and soaked up the time together. I didn't want the time to end with these folks, I now call family.

Here are some pictures from the event:

1. This is Jadis. I KNOW Jadis made more pictures than ANYONE over the entire event. Isn't he adorable. I'm seriously in love. He pokes his bottom lip out quite a bit and it just makes everyone melt. I think this picture here catching his personality a bit. I had a blast with Jadis!

2. Of course we have to take goofy husband/wife photos. It's very rare that you get a serious one of us both at the same time.

3. Every 4 years at the reunion, they take GENERATION pictures. All the folks from each generation get together and they take the generation shot. This is Kelly's generation. Rather than posting the nice smiley pic, I chose the silly one. This one is much more like themselves anyway!

4. And of course with every generation picture, there is an OUT LAW picture. These are all the "significant others" of the group above. They're lucky to have us, right? ;)

5. And last, but not least is a picture of the portion of the family I specifically married into. Pop is in the middle, sitting down. He makes up part of the generation that brings this entire group of folks together. Pop has two sons (both pictured here), my father in law (Larry) and Kelly's uncle Alan. The rest are composed of Alan's wife (Lisa), his kids (Jessica and Mathew), and Larry's kids (Kelly - my hubby, Kevin and his wife Leah), and his grandchild (Grace).

We've had quite a few offers to come visit them all over Canada and in Bermuda. I truly believe Kelly and I are going to take them up on these offers... let the planning begin. I can't wait to hangout with them all again!

Target is Evil.

yes. Target is evil. As many times as I've said I'm addicted to HGtv, I would have to say the same thing about Target. It's ridiculous.

Wait. I have to sidetrack for a second, just thought of something. The other day, during my coffee date with (girl) Kelly, I opened Kelly's birthday card and gift. While I was thanking her for her and Elian's generosity in their gift, she went on to tell me that she had hoped to give me a magazine subscription instead. A subscription to HGtv magazine, however, to her knowledge there is no such thing. HA! I thought that was hilarious. I'm addicted enough, and talk about it enough that one of my best friends wants to even add to the madness by giving me a magazine about it all. How awesome is that? or maybe scary, I don't know which.

So anyway, back to Target. You go into the store with one item in mind. Item A.

You say to yourself or to your husband or friend, "hey I'm headed to Target to get A." You go on your way, walk into the store, and BAM! before you know it you get A, B, C, D, E, .... and a $50-100 bill, easy!

I don't get it. How does that always happen? Before Kelly and I got married, I had to set myself to a bi-monthly Target visit, otherwise, I could go once a week and spend $100+ a week on randomness. That's NOT GOOD for the budget.

Today, it happened to me. I managed to get out of the door with less than a $50.00 bill, but I wasn't planning on buying ANY of the items I left with. I went into Target with the plan of getting ITEM A - a birthday gift for my coworker. As I walked through the aisles, attempting to make my way to the Halloween aisle for the gift, I first came upon the candle section. I picked up a bag of plain tea light candles (item B) - I used our last one last night. So that was sort of a "need". Next I walked to the Halloween section. There was nothing on cheesy for my coworker's gift, so I made my way to the electronic department - to my defense, it was sort of on the way. There I stopped and picked up a movie - IRONMAN (item C) for my hubby. I bought it as a happy for him. Next I went to the card section, looking for a card to add to the happy. Instead, I picked up two boxes of cute thank you cards (items D & E). Finally, I picked up the card to put with my hubby's happy (item F). Then I decided I wanted to wrap the happy in something, so I picked up a back for the movie, I rationalized this one because it was only $.34 (item G). As I looked over the multiple items in my hand, I decided it was time to get to the check out line before more damage was done. There I was psychologically stimulated by the product placement of candy - geez louizzz - I picked up two Laffy Taffy bars (items H & I) that were calling my name.

Do you see what I mean? Does this ever happen to you?


I went for item A. I ended up NOT GETTING item A, rather I walked out of Target with Item B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I.


Target is addictive, you could spend hours in that store, and spend lots of money while you're at it.

Good B'day & Upcoming Reunion

I had a wonderful, very low key birthday this weekend. Sunday, I turned 26 years old. I don't feel any different. Just another number on the ticker, right? I really enjoyed the low key atmosphere of my day. Sometimes it's nice to just relax and enjoy a day. I even took a nap on the couch yesterday afternoon... nice! The evening consisted of a great family birthday dinner. Dinner at Cafe 1912, and dessert at Baskin Robbins. Mmmmm, MMmmmm, Good.

Here is a picture of my sun burnt husband and myself at our dinner birthday celebration.

This weekend is a big upcoming event for the McGugan family. Our family reunion has arrived. Beginning Friday, October 10th - the McGugan's are flocking to Memphis. Watch out! We will take over the city for four days. October 10-13th.

The reunion happens once, every 4 years. It travels to the different McGugan family locations. Four years ago the reunion was in BERMUDA, and now it lands in my backyard. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to share as the weekend goes on and I meet about 80 of my in-law relatives. So far, I think I know less than fifteen. Bring on the good times!

Commentary of My Life

I'm so thankful for the amazing friendships the Lord has blessed me with. Among the friendships I am thankful for is the gal you see at the bottom (Kelly and her daughter, Lexi). During our coffee date Friday night, Kelly said something that I now believe defines true relationship. I do not believe that was her intent when she made the comment, rather I think she was just using a Kellyism and going about her way, but it has stuck with me - even now.

As I shared some stuff with Kelly, and talked, and talked, and talked about what was going on, I finally came to a stopping point. Once the silence hit, Kelly looked at me and said:

"I'm going to go pee, but when I come back I have commentary."

According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary online, commentary is:

Main Entry:

com·men·tary

Pronunciation:

\ˈkä-mən-ˌter-ē, -ˌte-rē\

Function:

noun

Inflected Form(s):

plural com·men·tar·ies

Date:

15th century

1 a: an explanatory treatise —usually used in plural b: a record of events usually written by a participant —usually used in plural
2 a: a systematic series of explanations or interpretations (as of a writing) b: comment
3 a: something that serves for illustration or explanation commentary upon our civilization — H. A. Overstreet> b: an expression of opinion

So this is what I think - true friends have commentary about our lives. They speak the commentary to us, write it in emails, give us explanations or insight in the things that we experience. They are not strictly bystanders in our lives, they make a mark on it. I'm so thankful for Kelly's commentary in my life. Thanks Kelly!

Chicken Biscuit Birthday 'Cakes'

Birthday "cake" chicken biscuits this morning. Yum. Look at the creative sweetness of one of my dearest co-workers. Janis & I share a birthday this Sunday, and our dear friend Shan presented us with Chicken Biscuit B'day Cakes with candles taped to them and all.

Too cute!

In other news, my coworker Kathie gave me a card today (and an awesome purple witch's caldron or body with witch legs and feet - it's a candy pot) for my upcoming birthday. The card she gave me totally hit the nail on the head - definitely a "Heather" card. Check it out:

Let's just say, with my past history of injuries and style, people at work don't call me Grace. :)

Country Road

I have the desire to write today but 1,000 things are going through my mind. We're busy these days, and lots of things are going on. From Kelly's busy schedule, to my daily grind, to our extracurricular activities, to catching up on our favorites shows, to training our dog, to finding time for friends and family, to housework, to home improvements, to everything else you can think of - we're definitely on the go. I can't decide which one of the items in my mind I want to focus on and use my blog as an outlet.

I guess what I'll do instead is post this picture.

One of the blogs I follow pretty regularly was suggested by my friend Brittany. Britt has a great blog of her own, and while avidly reading Britt's blog one day, I discovered this site in her list of blog reads. Dooce is usually a good read, and besides the reading enjoyment of the site, the author also posts daily pictures of her dogs and other random things. I happen to think she's a fabulous photographer. The picture above is an example. So one of my favorite items to follow with Dooce, is her photos. Hope you enjoy the one I'm sharing from her today.

This photo, she calls "Country Road" is currently my desktop photo. I love fall. I love the crisp air it brings and the colors that surround it. The smells in the air and the blue jeans and sweatshirts that come out of the closet. The football that takes over my TV, and the passion that spurs for the fans that cheer it on. This photo makes me think of all of that.

At the same time, I find myself staring down that country road wondering where it will take me. Where will I go if I follow that road? What is around the curve when you get there?

And then I ask myself, why do I live in a place that doesn't find a view like this on a regular basis?