My Favorite Gas Station

On Saturday I had one of those awesome all to myself days where nobody could tell me what I should or should not be doing. I didn't have to wake up for anything or be anywhere at a certain time. So I slept in and then did a buttload of errands. I love doing errands, especially by myself. It's just me time and I crank up my music in the car and I can take as long grocery shopping as I want and I can drive to three different craft stores looking for the right color felt to make a fab necklace (more on that next time) without anybody tell me I can't or that I'm wasting time and gas. And then I can get whatever I want for lunch! (can y'all tell that I grew up an only child and that I really cherish alone time, or what?!)

Anywho...so I decided I had to have Jason's Deli. I'm obsessed with their chicken panini and you should be too! Please go eat one, I promise you'll thank me for it. Plus...if you dine in you get free soft serve! What's better than free soft serve? Nothing, I tell you...except maybe free diet coke. Ok, I promise I'm getting to the point of this post. While I'm getting my sandwich I'm on the phone with my best friend, Karen, who lives in California and is not Mormon (that piece of info will be relevant in a second). So I get my panini and then I head over to Maverick...

no, not this Maverick:

this Maverick:

...next door for 48 ounces of goodness (diet coke with 2 quirts of cherry flavoring and 1 squirt of vanilla flavoring...oooo baby.). While I'm checking out I tell Karen to hold on a second...I've got to pay for my drink. And she says, "Why didn't you just get a drink at the same place you got your sandwich?" And I say, "Because my favorite gas station is right next door!" She then proceeded to laugh and tell me how weird it is that I have a favorite gas station to get a soda at.

So what I'm wondering, is this whole gas station soda obsession just a Utah Mormon thing? I started to realize that not once while growing up in California did I go to a gas station to get a soda. Our fridge was always stocked with diet coke so I never needed to. But my fridge is currently stocked with diet coke and yet I still go to Maverick a few times a week. It just tastes so dang good!! I know I'm not the only one in Utah with this obsession, because there are always people in and out of Maverick with massive sodas and I just read this post by Allison at SheBlogsSheBlogs. What are y'alls thought on the topic? Where do you like to get your soda? And have I officially turned into a Utah Mormon?

Christmas Traditions

Ok...so I know Christmas was over a week ago now but I'm not quite ready to let go of my Christmas spirit. My family doesn't have a lot of Christmas traditions but the ones we do have I absolutely refuse to let go of. Let me share with you my three favorite traditions:

1. In-N-Out on Christmas Eve

I hear that my sister Rachel started this one way back in the day. Apparently my family had no Christmas traditions at the time and she wanted to create one. And being an oh-so-chic SoCal family she decided that eating at In-N-Out on Christmas Eve would be the perfect tradition for us. And all these years later you can still find various members of the Thatcher clan at In-N-Out on Chapman Ave in Placentia on Christmas Eve. I know it's not your typical Christmas Eve dinner but we love it. When my sister was on her mission in France we even sent her a whole box full of In-N-Out memorabilia so she wouldn't feel so homesick...and I'm sure we would have threw in a burger and fries if it wouldn't have gone bad on the way to Nice. Gotta love In-N-Out.

2. Crepes and little smokies on Christmas morning

When my niece Emily and I were kids we could not get enough little smokies on Christmas. I swear we ate twenty of those things a piece. And we also devoured the scrumptious crepes my dad would whip up and cover them in tons of homemade maple syrup and powdered sugar. This year my dad thought he might get out of having to make a big breakfast on Christmas, but little did he know his 24-year-old daughter would throw quite the tantrum at the mere suggestion of that plan. No way was I missing out on Christmas crepes. And just like always, he couldn't say no to his little girl and the tradition lived on.

3. Lucky Charms under the tree

When I was growing up my mom would never let me have sugary cereal in the house. I was forced to eat nasty grown-up cereal like Cheerios and Raisin Bran that would inevitably be covered in sugar as soon as my mom turned her back. So every Christmas it became a funny little treat to get a box of Lucky Charms as a present. And still to this day I look forward to that magically delicious treat every year.

So what are your favorite Christmas traditions?

Songs I'm Currently Singing in the Shower

I know this is a few weeks old now but I just can't get enough of this song!

I forgot how much I love this until it came on my Ipod today!

It's the climb...

Yesterday I had lunch with my super cute friend Joelle Duff. We've known each other since we were three years old and have been friends ever since. Life has definitely gotten in the way over the years and we don't get to see each other too often. But we had a fun afternoon yesterday eating delicious food at the Corner Bakery (you have to try the chicken pesto sandwich), enjoying yogurt at Golden Spoon, and picking up a few essentials at the Brea Mall. Joelle has the cutest blog! Check it out at wherewelove.blogspot.com. Joelle came up with this fun idea for 101 things she wants to do in 1001 days. Well she got me totally inspired to write down my goals and new years resolutions (one of which is to start blogging more...hence my first post in like 2 months). I found this great article on the Real Simple website this morning called "9 Secrets of Motivated People". Most of the ideas were things I had heard before like telling people what your goals are and making sure you write them down but one of the ideas I loved was to "remember the deeper meaning." They talk about not just focusing on the end goal but learning to enjoy the journey. Gordon B. Hinckley once said "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured." So that's going to be one of my main goals this year and I've decided that Miley Cyrus is providing my theme song: "The Climb" (don't scoff...I love me some Miley). And once I've got a more refined list of new years resolutions I'm going to share them on this blog so all 3 of my readers can help keep me on track!

Be still my heart...

Why can't all men be like Gene Kelly?

He is so dreamy.

I have a new dream job...

I've decided I want to be the person who delivers the Publisher's Clearing House gigantic checks. I just saw one of their commercials and the people just look so dang happy. What a great job that would be.

It also reminds me of that episode of the office where Michael hits Meredith with his car and then they have the 5K Fun Run for Rabies and Michael just has to have a giant check to deliver to a doctor that costs them like half of the money they made with the fun run. Hysterical.

10 Things I'm Loving Right Now

1. Project Runway...I just started watching yesterday and I'm hooked.

2. Tim Gunn...Thank you, MOOD!

3. Mondo...He better win. His designs are out of this world! Did anyone else notice that every other contestant last night said that Mondo should go to fashion week? I CANNOT wait to see his collection.

4. Twitter...I'm totally addicted. I check it like 50 times a day. I just love knowing what's going on as soon as it happens.

5. Diane Keaton in "Something's Gotta Give"...She is so fabulous. When I'm rich and famous I'm going to have a house in the Hampton's just like hers.

6. Jack Nicholson in "Something's Gotta Give"..He is also fabulous.

7. The soundtrack to "Something's Gotta Give"...can you tell I watched that movie last weekend for like the 100th time and fell in love with it all over again? And the soundtrack is totally fab. I made delicious pasta last night while listening to it and felt so chic.

8. The Ellen Show...She is hands down the funniest woman on television.

9. My new black jeggings...I was super skeptical about the jegging at first and then I found some on clearance at Target last week. They are the most comfortable pants ever and they fit even when you're having a fat day. Thank goodness for lycra.

10. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...Nothing says fall to me like these cookies. I think I ate five of them yesterday...or was it ten?