The 100th Theater Thursday Giveaway!

Today marks the 100th edition of Theater Thursday!

Can you believe I've done 100 of these? What can I say, I do love the movies! To mark this occasion I've decided to have a fun giveaway! 

Incorporating one of my favorites... Elvis!! You can win the following...

Kissin' Cousins DVD

TCB Elvis Button

Elvis Ring

How do you win these great items? Easy...

1. Just leave me a comment telling me your favorite movie!

2. Follow my travel blog JMO Travels

3. Follow me on twitter @Jmomiller

4. Like Jmo Travels on facebook.

5. Ask me a question for my very 1st VLOG!

Pretty easy, right?!? Please leave separate comments for each!

Giveaway ends Wednesday, April 6th at 10pm est.

Wordless Wednesday Secret

I'll give you a hint... the secret has something to do with this...

Big Changes are coming my friends. Details soon!

The Verdict Is In

In the past few weeks I've talked about a lot of products and now it's time to let you know what I thought of them. There were a few major hits and then there was some major disappointments!

The first hit...

Vitamin water Zero XXX. This stuff is amazing! If you haven't had this or haven't had this particular flavor then run out and buy it! It's good stuff and I'm glad I bought it on a whim.

Another win...

These were really good. I've got about 3 of the flavors and have liked them all. The only down size is that that Acai Grape Blueberry as Gurana in it and I didn't realize it until afterwards and that's a NO GO for me. 

Now for the fails....

Zico Natural Coconut water. One word can describe it: disgusting. I had such high hopes for it and was excited to try it. I couldn't even make it through the whole bottle. It was bitter and left a horrible after taste in my mouth. PASS.

Bliss Fat Girl Slim. The verdict is kinda still out on this one. I think it helps when you actually use it like how it's directed however, the smell is rough. I equate it to a mixture between icy hot and ben-gay. Even after you wash your hands the smell is still on your hands. 

Now I'm off to make an appointment with a dermatologist to get my skin under control!

And guess who got a new blog button for their travel site?! Me!!! Check it out and add it to your page if you'd like!

Check Me Out!

Today I'm guest posting over on Ashley's blog, check it out! And as you may have guessed it's a post about Elvis! 

Theater Thursday

It's Thursday and we all know what that means around here! It's Theater Thursday!

This week's featured movie is Rat Race! 

Rat Race features a star studded cast including everyone from Whoppi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., to Seth Green and Jon Lovitz. And of course, who could forget... it includes Mr. Bean! 

Rat Race takes us from the the strip in Las Vegas to Silver City, New Mexico. When a group of high rolling billionaires get bored with the regular gambling techniques, Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) gets six lucky and random people together and tells them that there's 2 million dollars sitting in a locker in Silver City. The first person to get there wins it. No strings attached. 

At first the contestants don't believe it but when they realize it's on the up and up they begin to go for it in full gear. In the meantime the high rollers are hanging out in Vegas watching their every move by tracking them on a map and with first hand accounts of people on the ground watching. What they don't take into account is the human factor that anything can happen! 

So who will make it to the locker in Silver City first? And what will happen to the money and everyone who's been chasing after it? Well, go watch it and find out! 

How I Could Have Almost Went to Jail

You've seen these things right? 

The Christmas/holiday lawn inflatable. I hate those things. Yes, I said hate. Which is surprising since I love Christmas so much. Well I have a funny story to tell you about them and trust me it'll all come together why I'm talking about Christmas lawn inflatables in March.

So one night in December, my friend Erica and I were spending the evening gambling at the casino about 45 miles from my house. She had never gambled before so we headed off to the casino. I of course always have fun but Erica learned quickly that she didn't enjoy seeing her money escape her tight grip (I think this is a quality she may have inherited from her dad).

 

After losing maybe, maybe 5 dollars she was done. She was not having a great time so we left the casino and headed back to town. On the way we started grooving to a mix cd filled with music from at least 8 years ago. We named in music roulette because we had no idea what song would be next. Along the drive, we looked at Christmas decorations and lights. We noticed an awful trend. 

Every where we went there was at least one house on every block that had one of those gawd awful inflatable snow globes or reindeer etc. So being funny we started shooting them with our hands in the shapes of guns. It was like first one to spot it got to fake fire at it. Then I remembered that I needed to pick up a gift for a girl my workplace adopted for the holiday. Where do we stop? The only place open at 11pm Walmart! 

While inside we wandered up and down the isles trying to figure out what to get a little girl besides the requested Bratz dolls (that we agreed looked like strippers)...

and what do we see? The bb guns!!! Did you know that you can purchase a bb gun for less than 29.99? Well you can! We came thisclose to buying one of them that night to shoot the inflatables but we didn't. We showed some restraint and in the end agreed that it would be wrong. Maybe next year. JUST kidding! 

So how does this story just come out now? Well I'm purging a ton of stuff in my house and I came across the Bloodhound Gang cd from back in the day. I posted on my facebook that I was getting rid of it and Erica said this... " That's music to shoot lawn ornaments to."

What I Do & Do Not Miss About Spring Break

Last week and this week a lot of Universities are on spring break. I've been seeing a lot of spring breakers coming and going and it's made remember my spring break days. Since I'm stuck working in the real world and no longer get "Spring Break", I decided to compile a list of the reasons why I do and do not miss them.

I do not miss the boozers. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones who would get so drunk that they'd vomit in inappropriate places, be so obnoxious you'd want to hit them or they'd start fights all on their own. Let's not forget the ones you'd have to end up baby sitting.

I do not miss the classes. To get a spring break, you'd have to be in school and attend classes. While I was a fan of college and the social aspects part, I was not a fan of the actual classes and the homework. I do not miss stressing over the tests and spending countless hours of taking notes, filling out questions, writing papers and being quiet in the library. 

I do not miss the crowds. I hated that no matter where you went everything was packed out. The restaurants, the shops, the beaches, the theme parks. Lines out the wazoo. No thank you! I'd rather go in off season or the week after spring break and enjoy pool time and eating in peace and quiet. 

I do miss getting to spend time with close friends. Now that we're all out there in the real adult world it's hard to plan fun things around everyone's schedules. 

I do miss getting a quick week getaway that recharged the batteries. It gave that push to get through the winter months and provided an escape from the mundane. 

I do miss coming back tan when everyone else was still pasty or orange from their fake bake. 

Money, Hair & Health

For three months now, I've met my savings goal and paying off debt goal. Can I just say...

Wooohoo!

Now only 9 more months of doing the same! I think I can, I think I can! I'm down to my car loan and 3 credit cards. Which is a lot less than I started the year with. I can't wait to say that I'm finally debt free. I'm also getting one step closer to buying a house, which means a lot to me. 

Is it just me or what, but do the weekends go by way too fast? This weekend I went and got my hair cut and colored. Yep... after almost a year of not cutting my hair I decided it was time. I also changed the color up a little bit and evened out the blonde. 

I've also realized it's time to get back on the bandwagon of working out and not eating junk food all the time. Ekkk... now this is going to be the real challenge considering I've still got 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies sitting on the kitchen counter. I'd like to lose about 10 pounds over the next 2 months so that means actually doing some working out and self control on my part.

I picked up these at Target this weekend and I can't wait to try them. 

They're getting cold in the fridge right now so I'll have to let you know what I think about them another day. I hope I get a case of the skinny soon! Haha!

Theater Thursday: The Irish Edition

Welcome to this week's edition of Theater Thursday! With it being St. Patrick's Day we're going for a boost of Irish! This week's featured movie is Good Will Hunting. 

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a Boston boy working as a janitor at prestigious MIT. What most people don't know about him and what he doesn't even realize himself is that he has an uncanny ability for solving math equations and chemistry. His skills are so good they shock a highly skilled and brilliant math professor who decides to work with Will. 

Will not wanting to leave his sound end Boston home or his buddies like Chuckie (Ben Affleck). Along the way of his path of self discovery he meets a gorgeous girl (Minnie Driver) who makes him work towards the brass ring. All the while, wanting to stay the same for his buddies and not please people of authority who he feels are only looking out for themselves. 

I love this movie and think that the Boston Irish accents rock it even more!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!! 

What Not to say/do on a date Part 13

It's backkkkkkk! That's right What Not to Say/Do on a Date is back! 

It's been awhile but it's making an appearance again! Good for you, but bad for me! Why? because I'm the one who's been on all of these horrible/bad/awkward dates. Every single one of them. If you've missed any of the previous editions, you can find them here. 

Today's latest edition comes thanks to a person who's given me material for a previous edition. If you want to read the whole story you can but the end point being was that he told me he, "didn't even like me as a human being." Oh yeah, he said it! 

So how does this guy come back into my life? Well let me explain it to you. Last week I'm going about my work day and I feel my phone vibrate. It's a text and I don't recognize the number. I'll admit it, I screen my calls and texts like it's my full time job. So I get this text and the number looks kinda familiar. It's got my local area code and the first few digits look like it's a friend of mines that I just haven't saved in my phone. 

I responded with the casual, "Oh hey!" with a quick second message saying the person's name who I thought it was with a question mark behind it. Then it comes, "Um sure if that's what you want my name to be." Immediately I knew that it wasn't my friend so I of course lied and said, "Oh I'm sorry my iphone has went crazy recently and my contacts got messed up. Who is this?"

Judge all you want but you know you'd do the same! Because if it was a real friend who would have already have got ahold of them to make sure you had their number but some of those fair weather, don't see all the time people... well I just don't save their digits. Or hello, it could be a crazy stalker who's been sitting outside of my house and prays to a self made shrine to me at night. 

And then the other shoe dropped and he told me his name. OH MY GOD! Are you kidding me? That was my first initial shock. Then the second shock thought came of he still has my number?!? We haven't spoke for let's count them.... 8 months. I could have almost had a kid in that time. That's a long time! So then we started texting back and forth because frankly my interest were peaked. Why get a hold of me after the horrible things he last said to me? This is basically how the texts went....

Me: (right after he revealed who he was to me) Ohhhh....hey. What's up? (because I was raised to be nice and at least be courtesy) 

Him: Nothing much, I saw you in December when I dropped my cousin off at (my workplace) but I decided not approach you. 

For the record I saw him that day as well but didn't even budge or think about approaching him to speak to him. I was working and well frankly... just... no. 

Then he made a peace offering.

Him: I feel bad how I set you up last time with that ghostbusters song. He quoted a bobby brown song to me tell me that I was too cold to handle etc.. it was really rude. 

He then goes on to tell me that he's sorry for being a major ahole. I accept his apology and I think we move on to possibly being friends and that's when he says it...

"You are very outspoken which isn't always a good thing."

Really?!? This is coming from the guy who told me that he didn't even like me as a human being. Pot... meet kettle. So note to everyone, when trying to apologize and make contact with someone after months of nothingness.... Don't keep making jabs.

A Childhood Past Time

With a baby on the way in my family (my uncle and his wife are expecting), I've been thinking a lot about the play toys I enjoyed most as a child. I know that times have changed for kids but the thing I think has remained a constant for kids has been wood swing sets. 

I mean who didn't love playing on the swing set? It was always an awesome time going up and down the slide. I can remember some great times in grade school being on the playground and standing in line waiting for my next turn on the slide. 

I hope kids still feel this way! That their not hanging on recess playing with their dhs, while talking about the latest reality show.

What was one of your favorite past times as a child? 

Won't You Wear My Ring?

It's time folks. It's time to admit that I love costume jewelry. I have a serious addiction to buying beautiful, cute, fun rings! Wanna see my collection? Sure you do...

Yep, that's quite a few. I know. I got this cute and convenient jewelers case at Christmas and it's already full. I think it's time to get a second one and start filling it up as well! Can't see them from the picture that well? No problem! Here's some up close ones.

As you can tell, I try to arrange them in color coordinated lines. I love them, what can I say, I just can't get enough. Plus they can go with every outfit! 

If you can name who the other person is besides Elvis in the photo rings, I'll be impressed! Sometimes I want to wear them all at the same time, but realize that would just make me look like some trashy girl off of Rock of Love or something.

So there you have it. Now you know my jewelry obsession. I'm afraid once I get my ears pierced it'll turn into an earring obsession. I already have three pairs and my ears aren't even pierced! 

Since My Baby Left Me...

I found a new place to dwell stay...

I had the wonderful opportunity to stay at Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel on my latest stay in Memphis. Located on Elvis Presley Boulevard and within walking distance to Graceland, Heartbreak was a phenomenal choice. I was fortunate enough to win a nights stay from the Elvis Presley Enterprises and couldn't wait to take advantage of it. 

The decor in the lobby is bright, lively and fun! The Jungle Room theme dining area, conveniently located gift shop and 24/7 Elvis movie channel won me over. The room was comfortable, cute and spacious. In fact... I can't wait to stay there again! It was the perfect ending to my trip and if you've never stayed there and will be in Memphis then I suggest the Heartbreak Hotel! 

Thank you, Thank you very much EPE for the wonderful stay at the Heartbreak Hotel! 

Theater Thursday

It's Thursday and that can only mean one thing... it's Theater Thursday time! 

Every Thursday I chose a movie to feature. The only rule is that it must be available on dvd. Join up, it's fun! This week's featured movie is Easy Come, Easy Go.

(The original movie poster on display at Graceland)

Easy Come, Easy Go stars Elvis Presley as Ted Jackson, a frogman for the United States Navy. On Ted's last dive for the Navy he discovers a sunken ship. He believes that a treasure was on board the ship and goes about finding it. Enlisting the help of one of his buddies he tries to find out if the treasure was on board the ship before it sunk all while trying to keep the finding a secret. Along the way he meets a woman who turns his head... but is it for the right reasons? 

I think this is one of the cutest movies Elvis made. If you haven't seen it, get it! 

Memphis Trip Recap Part II

Incase you missed part 1 of my latest trip to Memphis, you can view it here. 

If you thought I packed a lot into the first day, you'll be amazed at how much I fit into my second day in Memphis. Once I got the day started, it was off to the Arcade Restaurant for breakfast. You may not have heard of the restaurant before but I'm sure you've seen it in a movie or two. It's been featured in Great Balls of Fire, Mystery Train and many others. 

Once breakfast was over, it was off to the main attraction- Graceland! 

I absolutely have a love affair with Graceland. If you've never been then you must rectify the situation and go immediately. Every time I set foot on the grounds I immediately get a cause of the envies because the property, house and furnishings is amazing. What I wouldn't give to be able to spend the night there! Oh why couldn't I have been alive in the 60's and 70's?!?

I took over 600 photos of Graceland. I won't be uploading them. Inside here's a few pictures from my favorite room in the house... the jungle room! 

Some people don't see the beauty in the furniture... but I sure do! Love it!

After touring the other 5 museums, I headed off to visit the historic Stax Museum. 

Stax is the recording birthplace of American soul music. The likes of Ike & Tina Turner, Issac Hayes, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and many more first recorded here.

A sampling of the albums recorded at Stax! 

After visiting Stax, it was back to Marlowes for dinner. I love that place and couldn't get enough of it! This time I feasted on pork chops! Yum!

Plus we swung by Graceland one more time to get some photos in front of the gates at night. 

I'd have to say it was a great time in Memphis and I can't wait to go back in August for Elvis Week! 

Memphis Trip Recap

To say that I packed the most into 3 days of travel is an understatement. I swear I'll break it into two parts! As soon as we got checked into the hotel, we hit the ground running. My first stop in Memphis for the weekend was shopping! I visited my favorite vintage store, Flashback Inc. I was on the hunt for some great vintage housewares and ended up not being disappointed. I walked away finding a great canister set and an owl cookie jar.

Once the shopping was done, it was off to the National Civil Rights Museum. During my last trip to Memphis, I was able to see the outside of the Lorraine Motel (the site where MLK was assassinated) but was unable to tour the museum because of the time crunch. This time around, I was not going to miss going through the museum. 

I'm so glad I was able to tour the museum because it literally takes you inside the motel. You get to learn the history of day MLK was killed and learn more about the hunt for his killer. You learn the history of the civil rights movement and get to see memorabilia from the 1960's. They also take you across the street to a second building to see the viewpoint of the hotel from where it's believed the shot was fired. 

 

Memphis City Bus from the 1960's & the room in which the famous shot was fired

After leaving the NCRM, it was off to dinner at Marlowe's. If you're looking for some amazing food and great BBQ then look no further. Each table at Marlowe's is decorated in different Elvis themes...

After dinner, I got to meet Sandi Pichon. If you're a huge Elvis fan then no further introduction is needed. If not... Sandi met Elvis when she was 11 years old, in fact his mother even served her lemonade at their home in Memphis. She was in Elvis' circle and has 2 published books, one being all photos of Elvis touring. I can't say enough about her, she was and probably is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I can't wait to see her again in August. 

Sandi and I

Once I was done getting my eat on...

The club sandwich...amazing!

..it was off to Beale Street! I hit up some of my favorite stores Tater Reds. I proceeded to spend my life savings on candles.

The weather held out while we were on Beale Street. It had been raining off and on all day long. Exhaustion finally hit at this point and it was off to the hotel. Tomorrow I'll finish telling about my trip to Memphis which included Graceland, Stax Museum and the Heartbreak Hotel!