Well well well…I haven’t blogged in a while.  I guess, like most of you, we’ve been a bit busy with the holidays, the new year, and the odd challenge of staying warm and dry in Alabama.  LOL!  I had planned to catch up on my blogging while iced in for 3 days during the “snowpocalypse” but all I seemed to do was cook, eat and watch football.  Laziness at it’s best.  Eric and I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s!  I got everything I wanted, less my dream trip to Italy I’ve been asking for since I was 15, but oh well 🙂 – I think it’s just become a running joke at this point.  But anyhoo, the thing I enjoyed the most about Christmas this year was just spending time with Eric and our families.  I was beyond disappointed that my dad and stepmom couldn’t be here this year, but otherwise, it was a great day.

We had a fabulous New Year’s eve with friends bar hopping in the loft district and eventually ending up at Steel for the countdown and dancing.  All the bars we visited were SMOKE FREE!!!  I was in heaven!  Then, of course, we had the monumental National Championship game and Winterstorm 2011 which hasn’t seemed to leave us yet.  I really don’t know how much more of this ridiculous weather I can handle.  Geez.  On top of being snowed/iced in and not being able to make the pilgrimage to Auburn like he’d planned, Eric was sick as a dog during the game …but I don’t think it dampened his spirits at the end.  He was, and has continued to be, quite ecstatic about the whole thing.  My house is now overflowing with Auburn magazines, books, hats, koozies, shirts, buttons…you name it.  Even worse than before.  It’s like he had to buy a whole new Auburn wardrobe because it now came adorned with the Championship logo.  Sigh….

Moving on…the new year has gotten off to a great start for Eric and I and we are really excited about this spring and summer.  There are some great shows coming up – most notably Jackopierce next weekend and Amos Lee in April.  We are also planning some fun trips with friends and family!  I’m taking Eric back to NOLA in March!  It’s my favorite time of year to go and I think he’s going to love it.  We splurged on a room at the Monteleone!  Can’t wait!!!!

Lots of other fun things going on this spring including weddings for my dear cousin Allen and also Eric’s BFF Walt.  We are also expecting the arrival of Conner James Irwin – my friend Diane’s first child – so we are busy with showers and planning!  I love weddings and babies!!!!

Everything else has been pretty routine around here.  Well, except for my recent visit to the dermatologist where I got the reality check of a lifetime.  I was informed I have lots of precancerous cells on my face that will likely turn into cancer if not treated.  He removed a spot on my cheek and told me I’d have to come back regularly from now on to monitor other spots and remove them as well.  It was pretty painful and is still healing.  Apparently I’m way too young to have this much damage and I thought he was going to fall out when I told him how much I used to tan in the tanning bed.  I’ve recently cut that back to 1 or 2 days a week but those days are over.  No more tanning bed, no more laying out, no more baking of any kind.  This news made me very VERY sad.  Even if coated myself in SPF 50, he said I couldn’t lay out in the sun for any extended length of time ever again.  He said my skin type, being freckly and naturally pale, was the prime candidate for melanoma and I’ll have to keep a close eye on it for the rest of my life.  I love the sun, I love summer. 😦

Now, I’ve had lots of scary visits to the dermatologist over the years but this one hit home to me for some reason – I guess because of the process of having a spot burned off my face.  ha.  But I’ve had so many doctors in the past tell me how much damage I had and how I was bound to have skin cancer but my dumbass continued to lay in the tanning bed and live by the pool in the summer time.  But I went out and bought a new daily moisturizer with SPF 30 so you know I’m for real this time.  I’ve been wearing it daily – even for the past 3 days where we’ve had NO sunshine whatsoever.  ha.

Anyhoo, I guess that’s enough of an update for now.  I’m in the process of possibly getting a new car so, hopefully, I’ll have that news soon!  We’ll see.  I’m also looking forward to some other changes around the corner that I can’t quite talk about yet but just keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hope everyone is well!