photo courtesy of Becky's phone

I’m supposed to write for five minutes on my friends.

Five minutes?

On the girls I met when I was 4?

The girls I giggled with at all the wrong times?

The girls I gave flowers to at my wedding?

The girls I worked with? Sweated with?

Served with? Cried with?

pretty sure this is Beck's phone, too

The girls that have been a part of every single season of my life? Every single place I’ve been, they’ve been? Every single thing I’ve done, they’ve done?

Who gets friends like that? Why was I blessed with girls that will cry when mentioning another’s name? Or offer to fast when one is going through a hard time? Or treat my kids as their own? Will clean out my parent’s house at a moment’s notice? Or will make a joke at just the right time? Or remember that “one time we…” just when we needed to remember?

yet another camera phone picture

My sisterchicks. I don’t know how it happened. Why we’re still friends. Or how we’ve stayed together this long. But I’m so thankful that God put a crazy group of little girls together in that church a long long time ago. I need every one of them for the different strengths and joys they bring to my life.

linked to my real and true friend, Lisa-Jo, the Gypsy Mama and her fabulous Five Minute Friday!

On Friends… is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Last night was a real life sisterchick girls night out! Staci made a yummy pizza fondue, we ate cookies, stalked people on facebook, talked about Twilight, blogging, kids and men boys men. Then as Mandi and I (the only ones with almost 2 year olds) started yawning…what was it about 8pm? Staci pulled out the cards and we started a game of NERTZ!

Nertz is a fast-paced fun and crazy card game that we used to play all the time in High School. I have memories of eight of us around our dining room table…twelve of us playing in the lobby of a church…ten of us playing in a hotel room on a youth group trip. I remember trash talking and high fives and tons of laughter.

So, to play it last night with my sisterchicks? Like coming home.

Wanna play? I’ll teach you and the next time you and your BFFs get together you can to try it out!

All you need is one deck of cards per person. Each deck should be unique. I like to collect cards on my travels for this very reason!

After you’ve shuffled, hand your deck to the person on your left…but don’t let go of your deck yet. Once everyone is holding hands via the decks someone shouts GO and the fun begins!

{We were so into NERTZ last night I didn’t take any pictures. So the kids help me recreate it this morning. Asa’s a whiz at solitare!}

Take your new deck and lay out the following:

• • 1 stack of 13 with the 13th one facing up (your NERTZ pile)
  • 4 individual cards facing up

Then you play a basic game of solitare. Begin placing cards in descending and order alternating colors on your 4 stacks. To get the cards you need, just use your remaining deck–flipping up every 3rd card to see if it is playable. If the card on top of your NERTZ pile is playable, play it and flip up the next card in the pile. If you come across an Ace, place it up above all your cards and begin to stack cards in order of that matching suit.

Now, are you ready for the twist?

In NERTZ everyone plays on everyone else’s Aces. Yes, that means, in our 5 person game last night we were all playing on TWENTY Aces.

TO WIN:

Be the first one to get rid of all the cards in your NERTZ pile…and yell “NERTZ!” when you do.

TO SCORE:

The first one to yell NERTZ gets 10 points. Then everyone counts up the cards (actual cards, not value) in their NERTZ pile–these will be negative points. To find the positive points, flip over all middle ace piles. Separate cards according to deck, find your cards and count the amount of cards. Add (subtract?) the cards and come up with your score!

(For example, if you have 5 cards left in your NERTZ pile and you stacked 15 cards on the Ace piles in the middle your score is 1o.)

So, any NERTZ players out there? Or are you willing to try it for the first time? If not, what’s your favorite card game?

linked to The Diaper Diaries’ Things I Love Thursday…because I love Nertz, Sisterchicks & the Diaper Diaries!

How To Play Nertz (The Best Card Game Ever) is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Saturday Staci and I participated in the most fun thing I’ve done in…maybe ever. It’s the local, cheap, short version of The Amazing Race. Teams of two race through their city doing stunts, taking pictures and unscrambling clues. It was literally GREAT.

Staci already recapped it brilliantly but here are my…

TOP TEN PICS, VIDEOS, TIPS & MEMORIES OF THE GREAT URBAN RACE ATLANTA

1. My BEFORE video.

2. Our Tshirts. Tell me you don’t want one of those! I’m taking orders.

Team #sisterchicks for the win!!

3. Our Marta Breeze Card. We were only allowed to use public transportation. And in Atlanta that’s Marta. We were super smart and got a Breeze card so we could just tap it at the turnstiles and go. No tokens or feeding money into a machine for us. Too bad that probably the only smart thing we did all day.

4. Our Socks. The clues covered everything from Gold’s Gym to jalapenos to Chipotle. This clue was to find the Boys and Girls Club in Atlanta and deliver a pair of socks. Great idea, right? Well, if we had read the clue BEFORE we got to the Boys and Girls Club we would know that. And we could have bought a pair of socks when we were at CVS buying a MAP of Atlanta and a newspaper for another clue. Instead, we had to go to the Alliance Theatre gift shop and buy a $9 pair of socks with a music note on them. Some little boy is going to LOVE those.

5. The Clue Sheet. Staci can tell you how we got our clue list before everyone else. (WE WERE BRILLIANT.) But it didn’t help too much. NEXT TIME we will solve EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY CLUE and get locations on a map or entered into a GPS. However, I will say that having a pen AND a Sharpie was good, too. After we finished a clue we clearly marked it up so we wouldn’t have to look at it again. And apparently, we are the only ones who did this. We were given the unofficial award of having the MOST Marked Up Paper.

6. Our Googlers. The Great Urban Race encourages all forms of help. If we didn’t know an answer we could call someone to google it or figure it out. We used a GPS and an iPhone the entire time. Mandi and Becky were on call to answer our questions. Which we did about every 5 minutes. We even called Staci’s dad to look through the newspaper for us. He found the hidden clue in the classified section and read it to us over the phone! We smirked every time we saw a racer looking thru a newspaper on the side of the road!

Here’s Mandi’s desk during the race: two computers and lots of stickies! (Are those from Cracker Barrel, Mandi? And is that picture upside down?!)

7. My BFF. I’ve known Staci since 1980. I was like 4. We don’t have to do stuff to be friends. We just are. We have the most fun together. There was no crazy screaming or whining during our Great Urban Race. We might not have won, but I doubt anyone had more fun than us!

8. Horrible Photos of Myself. We tried to document the entire race. PLUS, we had to take LOTS of pictures to complete the clues. Here I am eating an entire jalapeno pepper to complete a clue.

9. Our start & finish mat. Unfortunately, that #1 I’m flashing? It was in sarcasm. This was us leaving with our tails tucked between our legs.

10. My AFTER video.

There are still TONS of races in 2010. Check out the Great Urban Race website for dates. You should totally do one with your BFF! I’ll be your googler!

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So, got a Top Ten list to share with us? It’s easy, just write a fun post on your blog (it can be about ANYTHING!), make sure you link TO ME in it (so others can join in), then come back here to enter the link to YOUR POST (not just your blog) and finally start clicking around the other participants! See my Top Ten {Tuesday} page for more info.

It’s fun and I’m telling you these people are SO creative! I’m making a list of Top Ten lists I want to copy! You guys inspire me! Thank you for participating every week. I love seeing your links, your comments and your tweets.

And hey, let’s try something new today! Will everyone find their favorite Top Ten {Tuesday} post of the day and tweet it with the hashtag #toptentues? Wouldn’t that be a nice surprise? (Thanks to Sarah for the idea!)

Happy Tuesday!

all photos by staci

Top Ten {Tuesday}: The Great Urban Race Atlanta is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Usually when my sisterchicks try to get together for a Girls Night Out–no matter how easy or elaborate, it requires a lot of emails. A LOT. You know,

Where should we go?

I don’t care. Wherever you wanna go.

I already went there. It was ok.

Oh, well, how about this place?

Or maybe here?

You decide.

Oh, I can only do Friday between 5-7 or Monday between 10 and12:45.

You know how it goes. So, Tuesday when I emailed my friends and asked them if they’d come over to cook some freezable meals for my dad, they all responded with a resounding YES. And in a matter of minutes (ok, maybe hours) we planned to get together at my house and cook as much stuff as we could.

So, I scoured Once A Month Mom for some freezable recipes, ran to the grocery store and had all the food laying out on the counter by the time my besties arrived.

Soon we were opening cans, cutting onions, and cooking our little hearts out. The recipes I picked out were pretty easy–Paula Deen’s Taco Soup, Mandi’s Lasagna (link, Mandi?), Enchilada Bake, Chicken Tortilla Soup and rDad’s Saucy Pepper Jack Chicken.

It probably took us a little over 2 hours and look what we completed:

Isn’t that awesome?! That’s at least 8 meals! And all my parents have to do is pop it in the crock pot or the oven. I’m almost jealous I have to bring it to them! We were so inspired by our foodie-ness that we’re going to try a real live true once-a-month-freezer-cooking day a la Once A Month Mom soon.

But the best part was the rally-ing. The fact that my friends would drop everything (and their husbands would rearrange their schedules) to come help ME do something for my dad. It’s overwhelming. I love them so much and am so thankful that God gave me life-long friends. Proverbs talks about a friend that sticks “closer than a brother”. I’ve never understood that verse because I have a great brother–he’d do anything for me. But I see it today…my sisterchicks love me as much as their own family. They are willing to do things that sometimes family won’t or can’t do. And I’m amazed by it.

Thank you, dear friends! Aloha.

The Sisterchicks Cook is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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There is nothing like a sisterchick party.

At what other time and place would you eat salads for Christmas…

Have Santa come to your house…

Get presents as tall as yourself…

Or set your camera on self-timer so you can take a picture of yourself jumping in the air…

…and call it the highlight of your Christmas?

Aloha, ladies. I love you!

The Sisterchicks Par-tay! is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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…to bring you a new baby girl!

I told you my sisterchick, Mandi was due any minute. Well, by the time I posted about our joint baby shower she actually had her baby girl! I can’t remember all the stats…but I do know she’s a cutie because we saw her last night.

Lydia even got to hold her and was mesmerized!

(yeah, that would be my huge belly…)

Welcome to the world, baby girl!

We Interrupt This Weekend… is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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