The Details are in the Fabric

Picture challenge (playing catch-up)!!

2012-02-08T10:16:00.000-06:00

As I promised yesterday, I am jumping on board with the picture challenge! So, here we go....
Day 1...Your view today

This is me at my desk, which is where I spend most of my day. There is coffee to my left and water to my right. A picture of me and my sweet husband on our wedding day, lot of stuff to do. Yes, my computer has a mustache. It was a funny little thing because I just don't get the whole mustache craze!

Day 2...Words

I keep these posted on the window right behind my desk! I think they are words to live by and remember!

Day 3...Hands

These are mine and my husbands hands in the airport in our way to our honeymoon in France! We couldn't believe we were actually married and we couldn't stop staring at our new accessories! :)

Hope you all enjoyed my first few days of playing catch-up! :) I can't wait to hear what you all think!

Photo Challenge

2012-02-07T16:30:00.000-06:00

I always say that I need to take more pictures! I used to always have my camera with me and be in the ready to take a picture of EVERYTHING! For our one year anniversary, I even made a book of our first year together as a married couple with pictures from every month of the first year! Then, I really just slacked off and I wished that I took more pictures! When I saw the February photo challenge from Fat Mum Slim, I loved it! I know I am a few days late, but I think I can catch up, so I will catch up for the past 7 days and keep going for the month!! Thank you Caroline for posting yours! I love seeing what people come up with! I will start day one tomorrow and double up until I catch up!! So, here's to taking more pictures!

It's FRIDAY!!

2012-01-27T07:38:00.000-06:00

I feel like this has been the longest two weeks ever!! One of the sweet girls I work with lost her father unexpectedly on Friday, January 13th and has been out ever since. We are a small office to begin with, so we are all taking on extra work to make sure everything is covered while she is out and healing. Needless to say, things have been BUSY at work!! Emory has been traveling a lot, so things have been crazy at home too! I am usually off on Fridays to catch up on my homework for law school or to clean house or do things that I would normally do on Saturdays but can't. Well, I worked last Friday and I am here again. I really don't have to be here today, but I think it would help me sleep better at night to know I got some of it done before I go home!! But, I always forget how happy people are on Fridays because I am not really at work any more. So, here's to you Friday! Thanks for showing up and bringing a smile to so many!! Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!

Roll Tide!

2012-01-16T11:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I know I am a week behind the world, but it is hard to find time to sit down and just write! Although , I think I am going to try to make a point to do this at least three times a week! I really miss the outlet of getting to write to you guys and feel like people are reading and are responding!! So, here is a catch-up from the first couple of weeks of 2012....

1. It has gone by in a blur! I can't believe today is already January 16th! That is just crazy to me! This year is already starting to fly by!
2. Alabama (my Alma Mater) won the National Championship!! My house was ELATED at the win and we are so excited that the SEC can celebrate a NC 6 years in a row, and Alabama can bring the trophy back to Tuscaloosa after such a tumultuous year for the city and state! Roll Tide!!
3. I have made it my goal this year to spend more time with friends! I rarely have free time and I think it is important to work on the relationships with close friends! I started that yesterday with my best friend from high school! We lost touch after graduation and have both gone on to get married (both the Engineers) and she has had two kids! But we recently got back in touch and you would think we never missed a day! We spend about 6 hours together laughing, talking, shopping and eating (a girl's dream day, right?) and we had a blast! We definitely need to make it a point to do this more often!
4. My husband is the best! We have also made it a point to spend LOTS of time together this year. We truly are best friends and love spending time together! We have done a great job of that so far. I love him!
5. I am getting back into school. As reluctant as I am to have to get back to it, I am but it isn't easy! Remember that sweet husband I was telling you about and my friends? I wish I could spend some of the time I have to dedicate to school to having fun with them, but it will come right?
6. Organization! I have made it a point to get organized this year. I am already pretty organized, but I want to stay that way. Since I spend most of my time at work, this is where I started. I have a calendar to keep everything up to date and a new bin on my desk to help keep track of all of the work I have coming, going and in between! In my job, there is A LOT of paper and dates are the most important thing! But, so far (16 days in and it seems to be working.)
7. Blog more! I have already said this, but I felt it needed to be said again.
8. Exercise! I don't want to set any goals really, because I have nothing in mind, and I have very little extra time, but I think we need to maybe take more walks and just clear our heads more, plus I know two furry boys who LOVE the walks!!

Hope your 2012 is off to a great start!! I hope you all start coming back around this little corner more often! Let me know you stopped by too, as you probably know, it makes things better when you hear from people!

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-04T15:45:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone!! I am still alive! And I am still busy!! I finished my first semester of law school! I was so excited to finally have that first semester under my belt!! Now only 11 semesters to go! I can't believe we are already 4 days into the year 2012!! Last year went by in a blur (I may say that every year, but it seems to get faster and faster)! I can't wait to see what 2012 brings! I do know that I have made a list of some things that I would like to see happen in 2012 and I don't mean just January!!

1. Save more money! I think this is on everyone's list, but we just bought a new house and we have so many plans for it, so I think our money would be better spent here!

2. Cook more! We were doing so well with this before we moved, and then it all went downhill after that! We have been doing well so far this year, I just hope to keep it up, but I think we will!

3. Walk the dogs more! We have two pretty big and very active dogs (a Weimaraner and a Lab/Shepherd Mix) and they love to exercise!! We need to exercise more too, and we live pretty near a Greenway, so we have no excuse not to go more often!!

The list goes on and on, study more, get in shape, blog more, etc....

But, most of all I want to just enjoy every step of the year 2012! I tend to always look forward instead of enjoying the moment, so this year, my main goal is to just enjoy every moment! I hope to be back soon!

It's a Love Story....

2011-11-03T08:58:00.000-05:00

Hey there! Well, I have been taking some time to read for fun this week, which is a rarity these days, with law school reading and all. But, I have LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book! I love the Pioneer Woman and reading her love story has been so much fun! It is so sweet and so familiar! It seems so parallel to my story with Emory. It reiterates the "When you know, you know" mantra we always hear and never think it is true! I have really loved the story and I haven't even finished it yet! It is hard to find true stories of good examples of love and life, but this one is a good one. So, if you have time and you are looking for a great, easy read, look no further! Well, that was my quick share for today! Hope you all have a great week! The weekend, dare I say it, is ALMOST here! Yay! Have a lovely Thursday!

Playing catch-up

2011-10-18T16:27:00.001-05:00

Well, I don't know if I'll ever catch up, but...
1. We have moved and are getting all settled in! We haven't unpacked all of our boxes, but I have decorated my front steps for fall. The wreath is made by my mom...

2. I am over halfway done with my first semester of law school! I must say I love it. It is alot of work, and a bit of a sacrifice of time, but I'm so glad I did it!
3. I'm promising to get back to regular blogging. I miss you guys and my BFF Carlie may kill me if I don't!
So, here's a see you soon, because I promise I'll be back very soon! I Oh and by the way, I am in love and addicted to Pinterest. Find me if we aren't already following each other!

Busy doesn't even begin...

2011-10-01T07:40:00.001-05:00

Well, we have finally moved!! We have been waiting for 2 and a half months! Then, we got the word and we had 48 hours to pack up our entire house (more like 12) because the guy we bought our house from wanted to make it as difficult as possible on us, so we were those people who had to move in the middle of the night because like I said we had about 12 hours! Oh well, we are exhausted, but we are in our new home and all of our boxes are packed to the ceiling in our garage and slowly but surely, we will be all unpacked and settled! I hope once we get settled I can blog a little more! I need to update you on law school!! Have a great weekend, and Roll Tide!

Still here..

2011-09-02T08:18:00.001-05:00

Hi there, I'm still here if you are wondering! I'm just taking a little (maybe big) break! Life has just been crazy lately! And I have just been trying to keep up! We are still in the process of buying a house, I am so done with the whole thing, but trying to keep my eye on the prize! Last weekend, I turned 26 and I gave up my life for the next 4 years and started law school!!! I'm excited, but it is going to be a challenge! I'm also still working full time at a law firm! Life is great even at 150 mph! Hope to check back soon! Thanks for sticking around!

Whirlwind crazy!

2011-07-19T14:18:00.000-05:00

So, it is nothing new that my life is all kinds of crazy! I fill my days with looking around at houses in our area (although I think we have found one that we like), answering the phone calls at work, doing everything I can get done on my to do list at work, counting the days on the calendar until law school starts, and staring at my phone wondering if my real estate agent is going to call with good news (which she called today with potentially good news)!

I mean, I thought life would possibly slow down some, but it hasn't ONE BIT! But, we do think we have sold our house and have found one we like! I am training to run the Disney Wine and Dine half marathon in October! I am trying to prepare myself to start law school, and I am working 40 hours a week at a VERY fast paced attorney's office. Needless to say life just isn't slowing down!

Hopefully soon I can add some pictures to my posts! I still need to post the gorgeous pictures of our One Year Anniversary trip to the mountains! Hopefully I can do that before another month passes!! :)

One Year...

2011-06-28T14:37:00.000-05:00

Wow how time flies! I haven't been on here in forever, hopefully I can set a more blog-oriented schedule soon! But, I just wanted to come by and share what a wonderful weekend I has with my husband...OF A YEAR! Yep, that is right! Sunday, we celebrated our one year anniversary! Can you believe it has already been a year?! We enjoyed a cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains in Georgia, our wedding cake topper, our bottle of wine we bought in France on our honeymoon and each other!! It was the perfect way to slow down and really relax and reflect on where the year has gone! I got him a book that I made of our first year in review and he got me tickets to see Miranda Lambert! :) We visited a winery on Sunday and bought a bottle of wine to enjoy on our 2 year anniversary! I think we have started a great tradition, buying a bottle of wine in the place we celebrate our marriage and then drink it the next year!

Other updates on life: I am starting LAW SCHOOL in August! Yay! Working at the law firm was just the kick I needed to apply! It will be tough trying to juggle it all, but it will all be worth it in the end! :) We are VERY excited to see what comes of it! Hopefully I will be around here more often as well!! :)

Thank you all for being patient with me! My friend C told me that if I didn't hurry up and post a blog, that you guys were going to send out a search party for me! :) Well, I am here, alive, just SUPER EXTREMELY busy!

Again....

2011-05-18T16:47:00.000-05:00

I feel like I am perpetually absent from the blog world for certain periods of time. Life is just moving WAY.TOO.FAST! I have SO MUCH going on that I can barely keep up, much less sit and write about it! So, I may take a small break while I catch up with life. Maybe it will just be a few hours and I can check in before I lose my mind. Talk to you soon!

Getting back in the swing of things....

2011-05-09T10:24:00.000-05:00

My list of things to do is just growing by leaps and bounds...seriously!

We are starting to pick life back up where it was left off in the aftermath of the storms from two weeks ago! We were without power for over a week. We were very lucky though, less than a mile from my house, you can't even tell there were neighborhoods there, or a grocery store, or a pharmacy. Really, it is scary.

Anyway, we had a previous trip to the beach planned for last week and with no power and work being closed, we decided it was best just to go. We packed in the dark and had to leave our house just kind of there. Really, it wasn't the way I would have chosen to do things, but we needed to go. We packed our bags and were gone. Although, with the disaster area and power trouble left at home, it was hard to fully relax on the trip. We also knew that when we got home, we had a lot of things to take care of. With no power, your refrigerator and freezer doesn't work. We lost EVERYTHING in our fridge and freezer, which again, we are the lucky ones. We had to come home and replace everything that we could think of in our fridge and freezer. It was a good opportunity to take all of the shelves and drawers out and clean the whole thing, I guess.

Now, we are back to our regular schedule and are trying to get back into our routine. Our dogs didn't do well with us being gone and are not the same, so that is another thing we have been trying to correct this weekend and I am sure for a while moving forward. Hopefully I will get to a better routine soon, now that all of our dishes and laundry is done and our fridge is kind of restocked. We just have a few more things to do for the house and everything will be back (kind of) like it was. Hope you all have a great week, I am glad to be back! If you would like to know more about the storm that hit my area go here! Thank you all for thinking of me and my Sweet Home Alabama during this time!

Devastated

2011-04-28T06:52:00.001-05:00

Well I am updating from my phone. just as I was about to post an update, storms hit yesterday, and it was the worst in history for this area. As you all may know, I live in North Alabama. We have no power and won't for days, we were lucky at my house with no damage but today is going to be a long day of cleanup at my parents house, they have lots of trees down and can't get out of their driveway or road without extensive tree cutting. However, we wake up thankful today that we are the lucky ones, our friends and family are all safe and accounted for. Trees can be cut, power will eventually be restored, but the 128 (and counting) lives lost in alabama can't be replaced. Please keep our area in your thoughts and prayers as we begin the long journey of cleanup and restoration. And pray for power soon!

Happy Good Friday!

2011-04-22T15:47:00.000-05:00

It looks my new blog schedule is going to be well, not as often. I do have lots to update on, but it seems as if I don't have an SD card slot at work, so I can't share pictures, and I want to be able to share pictures, before I share my post! Anyway....I am still working at the law office and busy, busy, busy!!

We have somethings to share, so maybe I will be able to tell everything in pictures when I get home this weekend!! Hope you all have a great week and a HAPPY EASTER! I will be back this weekend with pictures!!

Letters

2011-04-13T16:38:00.000-05:00

I think I have mentioned before what a fan I am of snail mail! I just love letters! Really, I get so excited when I go to the mailbox and find something other than a bill or junk mail! It is really one of those things that just makes me so happy! When my husband and I were dating, we lived 4 hours apart. I used to send him a letter every single week. He kept them all and it has been fun to go back and read them and see how things were back then! :) When he was overseas for a month, I packed him up some letters to take with him, one for each week he was gone! I know how much it means to me when I get a real letter, and I thought it was something that he would really enjoy when he missed home! (I think he did!) Now, I am a pen pal to Lindsey! It was so much fun getting her letter in the mail last week and writing her back (it is on the way BTW!). A letter can really turn the day around. If you enjoy letters as much as I do, you should send one to someone you love, or someone you haven't kept in touch with like you should. If you don't have anyone like that, you can also go send a letter to a soldier, just to say thank-you. If you live with the person you would write a little note to, just put it somewhere where they will find it, like in their car or by the coffee pot. Kind words mean so much and finding a little letter can go a long way! :) Happy Wednesday! Hope you all have a great week!! It is almost FRIDAY!!!

Checking in....

2011-04-12T14:41:00.000-05:00

Well, the wedding this weekend was a success!! When I get access to some of the pictures, I will post them! The weather turned out beautiful and the day couldn't have been more perfect for them. So, if anyone is in need of a wedding director/planner, you can call me. Because I have done one with no hiccups and I loved it!! ;)

On another note, I am a big breakfast eater. I have to have something to eat in the morning or I am ready for lunch at 9:30 am and I can't think about anything else until I eat. Plus, if I get hungry, I get grouchy, just ask my husband! ;) We cook breakfast on the weekends and back when I didn't work, I would get up and cook breakfast in the mornings before E left for work. Well, now that I have to get ready and go to work, I don't really have that much time to cook a breakfast that we are used to, but I still need something and I don't want to stop for a fast-food breakfast every morning, that would just be bad for bikini season and the people who have to look at me! LOL So, I have discovered the awesomeness of the smoothie! I used to get these a lot in college after I worked out, but never really any other time. Well, I have been making smoothies this week for breakfast and can I just say I LOVE them and they keep me full until lunch!! Well, they do. I started with the Yoplait smoothie packet and discovered it was just frozen fruit! Well, at almost $4.00 per pack, I thought that was silly. So, I bough some frozen fruit at Publix, along with some fresh bananas and then you just add mild (and OJ if you want) and you have a great breakfast to keep you full! Plus, it won't be bad for bikini season. Because I have 18 days before we leave for a week at the beach!

Speaking of beach....everyone needs to go welcome by beach buddy to the blog world! She JUST started her blog and needs people to read about it!! So, go to her blog, Many Faithful Journeys, and let her know I sent you!! :) I have mentioned her and her husband before (he was the best man in my wedding and she helped keep my husband sane...) She is also a fellow duck-hunting widow in the fall...... So, go now and say hi and tell her I said hi!!

Have a great week!!

So, I lied....

2011-04-06T16:59:00.000-05:00

...You know, when I promised you about two weeks ago that I was back for good this time. Well, hopefully I really am. I have had SO much going on lately it isn't even funny! I am lucky that I have a chance to sit down and even speak!!

So here are a few bullet points on what has happened in literally the last week...

1. I have a new job at a law office that I love.
2. My car is sick and in the shop.
3. I am having to drive my husband's truck! (Only difficult in reverse)
4. I am directing my first wedding this weekend and I am so excited!

I will update you all soon! I PROMISE!! Hope you are having a great week!

I'm Back (for real this time!)

2011-03-23T11:26:00.000-05:00

Well, as I have said, I have been super sick! I had a toothache then allergies and neither of them will leave me alone! Although, I do believe I am on the mend! I had my root canal on Monday and there is no more shooting pain, just pain from them having to drill all the way to the bottom of my tooth (that I already had to get a root canal on)! Needless to say, I am SO ready to feel better again! I think today is the beginning of me feeling better! I mean, for me not to have blogged in so long nor have I worked out, I was S.I.C.K!! But, now I am better!

I will have to catch up little by little! Spring is officially here! Our trees are blooming and our tulips have finally bloomed! Yesterday, my husband cut the yard to get ready for the season!! I am SO excited!

Here are some pictures of the wedding I went to this weekend! (Well, I was in..) It was HOT in South Alabama and I was still sick, so please excuse me! It was my sister in law (feels weird to say that) my husband and I were both in it!! So, without further adieu....

The whole wedding party!

Amy and her bridesmaids!

The Winters family (immediate)

The WHOLE Winters family!

Update

2011-03-22T07:49:00.001-05:00

I need to update you guys about so much! I am still in some pain from my root canal yesterday so it may be tomorrow or this afternoon before I can update! I will let you know about the youth and the wedding and some exciting things coming up! We shall talk soon!

Still here!

2011-03-16T14:27:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I have been gone for so long! I mean I am here, reading away, just not posting or commenting! But for good reason...
I have been so sick! First I had a major toothache, went to the dentist and then a specialist who determined I needed another root canal (already had one on this tooth) but he can't do it until the 21st! So I am on pain meds and staying away from anything hot or cold until then! Next, I got hit with a major sinus infection! Like unable to physically get out of bed sick! It has been rough. But I am getting better everyday! My sister in law is getting married this weekend five hours away, so I have to feel better because emory and I are in it! But, just wanted to check in. I am blogging from my phone because our internet modem died and I am waiting on emory to hook up the other one tonight! Hopefully I will be back at it now!

Cooking Success and ABC's

2011-02-25T09:31:00.000-06:00

So, last night Emory and I decided to cook a new duck recipe I found! Cream cheese duck. Basically it is butterflied duck breasts, tenderized with cream cheese and jalapenos and wrapped with bacon and grilled on the grill pan! They were GREAT! We soaked them in Italian dressing (thanks to Brittany's suggestion) and then cooked them last night. I also made the Parmesan potatoes that I mentioned a few weeks ago! It was a GREAT meal! Have I mentioned that I love LOVE my Le Crueset? Because I really really do!

And now for the ABC's, I found this over at Cait's blog!

A - Age: 25
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: Putting away clean laundry!!!
D - Dogs: I have two. Scout, a lab/shepherd mix who is almost 5 and Max, a Weimaraner, who is 8 months!
E - Essential start to your day: Letting the dogs out and COFFEE!!
F - Favorite color: green and red
G - Gold or Silver: Silver. Gold just doesn't look good on me!
H - Height: About 5'3"
I - Instruments you play: None. My brother got all of the musically ability in my family!
J - Job Title: Stay at home um wife
K - Kids: None yet. Maybe one day!
L - Live: Sweet Home Alabama
M - Mom's name: Ginger
N - Nickname: Becky (real name is Rebecca) and my brother calls me Deanie (no idea why, he just always has)
O - Overnight hospital stays: When I was about 3, but I don't remember.
P - Pet Peeve - not using the blinker and driving slow in the left lane!
Q - Quote from a movie: This one is lost on me. I have no idea!
R - Right/Left: Right!!
S - Siblings - Older brother Chris.
T - Time you wake up: Between 6 and 6:30 most days.
U - Underwear: Victoria's Secret and I have way too many!
V - Veggies you dislike: Tomatoes unless they are green!
W - What makes you run late: I HATE being late. So, if I am late it is because of someone else!
X - Xrays you've had: We should talk about the ones I HAVEN'T had! It would be quicker!
Y - Yummy food you make: Everything! I LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook!
Z - Zoo animal: Elephants and giraffes!

OK, now go and have fun! I want to hear from you! And HAPPY FRIDAY! Have a great weekend!

Say hello!!

2011-02-24T12:14:00.000-06:00

Well, Thursday and Friday, I am going to be filling in at a local law office while they are out of town so I won't be checking in quite as often probably! But, I have noticed that I have gotten a few new followers! I would love to hear from you! I know there are also some readers who read the blog often, but who don't ever comment! I would love to hear from you and know who is out there! So, give me a shout out! If you don't want to leave a comment, at least drop me an email! You can let me know what you like (or don't like) about my blog or just say hi! Sometimes as a blogger it is hard to remember that you are actually talking to people out there because we never hear from some of you! I also have a facebook badge on the side if you want to be my friend! Just let me know you are from the blog and I will add you!

Since you read about my life everyday, now it is your turn to say hi! Hope you all have a great end to the week and I can't wait to hear from all of you!!

Spring Fever!

2011-02-23T07:16:00.001-06:00

The weather has been absolutely perfect around here for about the last week! Although it has been a little cloudy, the temperature has gotten us ready for Spring! This weekend was a long weekend for us and Emory and I took the opportunity to get everything prepared for springtime! We have fruit trees in the backyard, we pruned them, we have a pergola on the patio that we have grapevines growing up, we pruned them. Our tulips in the front of the house are starting to grow, and we decided to add to the house and build to new flower beds. We built one in the front, and one in the back! Then, we planted some bulbs. If I can keep a little gray four legged person out of them, we may actually get some flowers! Needless to say, after building two flower beds out of concrete pavers and then shoveling dirt (TWO TRUCK LOADS!) I was so sore yesterday that I could barely move! My back was so stiff, I didn't think that I was going to be able to go about a normal day. I tried to really stretch it out, and it wasn't until this morning that it really felt better! I am SO glad! Anyway, all of this wonderful weather has really put us in the mood for Spring, which is just around the corner! We are ready at our house!! Now, we just need the warm weather to be here for good! I am so ready to see green everywhere and see our flowers grow! And to plant our garden and have some fresh veggies for Summer! What are you looking forward most for Spring?

Playing Catch Up

2011-02-18T10:20:00.000-06:00

I feel like this week has been super crazy. Nothing has really happened and I don't think I have much to show for it, but I didn't really get a chance to sit down at my computer and write anything. Our taxes are filed! That makes for a burden off your shoulders and a relief! Our trip to Palm Beach is booked and is driving me crazy because I have to wait til MAY! (But it gives me time to look my best, or better than I do now, if not my best!) The husband and I started running this week! We will also be starting P90X when we get the nerve. We have done all of the prep work, we just have to start. Like I said, this week has just not allowed for anything! I had TWO Valentine's swap partners and they were AWESOME! They really made my day! If my camera wasn't dead, I would put pictures up, but of course it is and I can't! I went to the Library yesterday and I checked out a few books, I started reading one yesterday afternoon and I couldn't put it down, so I finished it! In one afternoon! It is called Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson! It is worth reading! So, go now and get it, it isn't a huge book and it was great! I had tears and couldn't stop reading!! This weekend is a long weekend and I am SO excited! The husband has some Fridays off, so he is off today (even though he is fishing, it doesn't seem like he has today off) and he is off Monday for the holiday so we get to spend some much needed extra time together!! VERY excited! Well, I guess that is all I have to share, I hope this post hasn't been too all over the place, even though I know it has! I hope you all have a glorious weekend! It looks like the weather is much prettier these days all over the place, so maybe you can get outside and soak up some sun!! See you guys next week!!

Happy Birthday....

2011-02-11T09:20:00.000-06:00

to my wonderful husband!!! Today, Emory is celebrating his 27th birthday!! Last year, we were at the beach for his birthday, and not only was it a great day because we were celebrating the day of birth of my #1 man, but he also asked me to marry him!! Yep, last year, on his birthday, we began the journey to husband and wife! (Click here and here for the story!)
So, today, just one year later we are celebrating again! This time, as husband and wife! What a wonderful year it has been! I am looking forward to celebrating SO MUCH MORE for years and years to come!

I know I talk about him sometimes on the blog, but I don't think I have ever dedicated a post just to him! So, what better way to celebrate him on his birthday? A little about my husband....he grew up in south Alabama. He was the quarterback and valedictorian. He graduated from The University of Alabama and then got his masters. He now works as an engineer. He is a duck hunter in the winter, a fisherman in the summer and the best guy I know! He knows how to take care of anything at home! He likes to build things and will always do things himself (and correctly)! He always makes me smile and he cares about everyone else's happiness above his own! He can be quiet and shy, but once he warms up to you and becomes your friend, he is the best friend anyone has ever known! He works so I can stay at home. I love being here when he leaves and greeting him when he comes home! I love that he loves tradition as much as I do! I love roadtrips and traveling with him or just snuggling on the couch and watching tv with him! Anything we do together is always thes best time! He is the sweetest husband and I am so happy to be celebrating him today! So, Happy Birthday Emory! I love you so much!

Menu Planning Part 2

2011-02-09T08:16:00.000-06:00

Well, I got so many questions about my menu planning yesterday that I decided to post for all of you the menu at our house this month. I subscribe to Myrecipes.com and I get recipes emailed to me daily. I have been saving them in my email for a couple of years. I went through the Publix sale paper insert last week (the first of the month) and made my list loosely based on what was on sale at Publix. I would go through my email and see what recipes I had stored in order to best use what was on sale! Keep in mind we are trying to get healthy, so I tried to stick with recipes that were light. They all mostly come from Cooking Light, so they are pretty healthy! If you would like any of the recipes that I have listed below, just comment or email me and I will be glad to send them to you! I thought for now I would just list our menu and if you want the recipe, just let me know, I will be happy to share! (I cook Mon.-Fri.)

February 2011 Menu

2 - Grilled Tilapia, Rice and Scalloped Oysters
3 - Maple and Soy glazed steak with steamed veggies and noodles
7 - Chicken Quesadillas with chips and salsa
8 - Fettuccine with shrimp and portabellos
9 - Turkey Burgers and Roasted potatoes
10 - Chipotle Bean Burritos, Chips and Salsa and guacamole
11 - Garlic Chicken Pizzas
14 - Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry and Rice
15 - Cream Cheese Duck and Potatoes
16 - Roast Chicken with Balsamic Peppers and Cous Cous
17 - (Prior engagement)
18 - Tex-Mex Lasagna
21 - Chicken Penne with Lemon Caper sauce
22 - Pork with Parmesan Potatoes
23 - Fish Steaks with Heart of Palm salad and Cous cous
24 - Drunk Duck with Rice
25 - Baked Chicken Tortillas
28 - Mahi Mahi with Verde Caper salsa and rice

Notice, we have a few nights that we have duck on the menu, my husband is a duck hunter, and I don't think you should just shoot to kill, if it is killed while he is hunting, we eat it. It isn't my favorite meat, but I am learning new ways to cook it where I am actually beginning to like it! The pictures are of my menu calendar and a fuzzy picture from my Publix receipt. The total says :$135.39! Have a great Tuesday! Let me know if you have any questions about my meal planning or recipes!

Menu Planning

2011-02-08T08:37:00.000-06:00

Happy Tuesday everyone! We are finally past Monday and now the week can start to get better! This is a happy week around my house! Friday is my husband's birthday and also the anniversary of our engagement! S very happy and exciting day! It is great that it is on a Friday this year! Even though he has to work, it will still be a great day!

Who doesn't love to save money? I have tried the couponing thing and honestly, I just can't get it, or maybe I am just not that good at it. Anyway, I wanted to try something that I have heard people doing but have just never tried! The last day of January I sat down and looked at recipes and what was on sale at Publix and I made a menu of healthy recipes (we are trying to get beach ready at my house) for the whole month of February (cooking Monday through Friday, eating left overs for lunch the next day). I then went to the grocery with a HUGE list and purchased what we didn't already have at home to make all of the recipes. I spent less than $150.00 at Publix for groceries for THE WHOLE MONTH!! I was stunned! And all of the recipes are gourmet stuff, not just something boring! I was SO excited! That is less than half of the money I put aside in our grocery budget. We usually don't eat regular scheduled meals on the weekends and we have lunch/supper and my mom's on Sundays. But I have a few ingredients that can be used if we choose to eat at home!

If you knew me, you would know that I am the queen of planning and the queen of lists! I have a daily to do list and I love marking things off. I even add things to the list that I have done that wasn't on the list just to mark it off! So, with this whole menu thing, I wake up with a PLAN for dinner, which I LOVE and it takes the stress out of wondering what is for dinner! It is even great because if I am doing something (like working out) where I am not home right at dinner time, my husband can look at the calendar (because the calendar is filled out with what is for dinner each day and recipes are in a binder) and see what is for dinner, look at the recipe that is with it and start dinner, and KNOW that he can find the ingredients in the pantry/refrigerator! It is awesome!

Anyway, just wanted to share for some of you that want to save money but are like me and can't get into the couponing thing. Plus, just having the plan is worth it for me! Hope you all have a great Tuesday! I am off to run some errands and am looking forward to dinner! I think tonight is linguine with shrimp and portabellos! Yummy! Have a great day!!

A whole lot of random!

2011-02-07T09:31:00.001-06:00

Well, I have been MIA for the latter part of last week! Sorry about that, I just let life get in the way! LOL Actually when my husband has days off from work, I like to spend the day catching up with him and blogging usually doesn't make it into the agenda!

Actually, we had a pretty fun weekend. Friday, we got some errands out of the way and had to spend most of the day inside because it was nasty and rainy! Saturday, it was cold and snowy but we decided we had been in long enough and took the puppies to the local Botanical Garden for the Bow Wow Boneanza! They let you walk around the Garden with your pups (they are only allowed in winter) and they had some vendors set up and they had a dog agility course up that you could try. Well, Scout is a mama's boy and he likes to stay close (he is a rescue) but Max is pretty fearless. He LOVED the attention and he also LOVED the agility course! I mean, we walked him through one time and showed him what to do, and the second time, he sprinted the whole course and LOVED it! His favorite part was the tunnel! The guy that owns the agility training place told us to bring him to classes because he did so well! We were proud parents! Scout was also a proud big brother! He watched him the whole time!

Sunday, we tried a new church and didn't care for it. Then, we came home and watched a movie (AND BOOKED A FLIGHT TO PALM BEACH IN THE SPRING) before heading to my parents house to watch the super bowl. They are huge Steelers fans, so it was a let down for them. I was super disappointed from the beginning. How do you mess up the National Anthem Christina? I mean really? That is pretty disgraceful! Then the commercials were not THAT great, they have been better, and the halftime show was a story in its own! It was just a no-go the whole way through.

Here's to hoping this week is a good one and it doesn't get too cold!!

***As you all know, I am a ThrityOne consultant! I am going to be giving away a product to a blog reader who chooses to host an ONLINE party!! You get all of the benefits of hosting a party without having to do anything except tell people about it! You get the hostess awards, your customers get the customer discounts PLUS a FREE gift from me! Who could go wrong?! Please email me (rebecca [dot] m [dot] winters [at] gmail [dot] com!*** You can check out my website to see the catalog! (www.mythirtyone.com/beckywinters)

FRIDAY!

2011-01-28T08:36:00.000-06:00

Ya'll, can you believe it is Friday?! In high school, we used to have a teacher who would make her classes sing "The Friday Song," you could hear it all through the hall on Fridays. I still remember hearing it, and even though it sounded pretty annoying, it was always a great reminder that it was finally Friday! Anyway, I am SO excited! I love Fridays! Everyone is always extra nice and happy! I am feeling kind of craft today and I really want to make a wreath out of book pages! Have any of you ever done this? If so, did you make the rolled pages or the rosette one?! I am just curious! I have LOTS of errands to run today it seems! But, that is ok! I also think I get to hang out with one of my good friends so that should be fun! I am really looking forward to a great Friday! Hope you all have a lovely Friday and a wonderful weekend!!

It's a beautiful day...

2011-01-27T07:55:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I was at a loss for a blog title here. I am not talking about the U2 song, nor am I about to quote Mr. Rogers. I woke up today in the best of moods. I attribute it to the FULL NIGHT's sleep I got! Yep, I didn't wake up all night, and Max slept in his bed all night. Who knew a little switcharoo on him would make him stay in his bed?! Well, it did and I am willing to do whatever works!

I am in such a good mood this morning that I didn't even get bummed because I thought today was Friday when it was really just Thursday! Nope, not mad, because I am not going to ruiin my great mood! (I am sure my husband is glad that I got a full night's sleep!) He even told me this morning that I woke up in such a good mood that I was acting silly. (Because I was talking to Max in my little kid voice.) But, it was great and I feel like it can only get better from here!

Well, I don't have much to say today other than talk about my night's sleep. That's lame. Sorry. I will try to do better tomorrow. Here is a picture to make up for the lameness! LOL

Our honeymoon in Fr@nce! I miss it terribly and it reminds me of warmer days!

ThirtyOne

2011-01-26T05:00:00.001-06:00

I am excited about the new venture in my life coming up! Have any of you heard of the company and products ThirtyOne? Well, it is a direct sale type company that sells bags, purses, totes, kids stuff, thermal bags, baskets, baby stuff, stationary and lots of other things, I can't even list them all! Well, I had a party at my house in December and I fell in love with the stuff that I bought! The patterns of the fabric are cute, the types of things they have are practical and I really loved it all! The sweet lady that held the party at my house told me that I should start selling it since I loved it so much. I thought about it and I thought that is exactly what I will do. I am SO excited! I love meeting new people and this is a great way to do it! I used some of the things that I bought at Christmas and my family fell in love with it, I also take it to grocery stores as reusable bags! It is even monogrammable so I can personalize it! I really like the hostess specials you get when you host a party! (I got most of my initial stuff for FREE!)

Anyway, I also like the company because they are a Christian based company. Their name, ThirtyOne, is referencing the bible verse Proverbs 31. So, of course, I fell even more in love with their stuff! I have the time and I love the products, so why not huh? Anyway, I was super excited (and all of my supplies should come today) to join and I thought I would mention it since it is on my mind. If you want to check it out, you can go to my personal ThirtyOne website here. You can have a catalog party or an in-home party if you are within driving distance! :) Or, if you see something you like, let me know, you can place an order without having to have a party!

Sorry for the plug today, I was just SUPER excited and had to share! Happy Wednesday! The week is half-way over!

Dinner and Success!

2011-01-25T08:11:00.000-06:00

Well, I am here to tell you that I got more sleep last night! And it was WONDERFUL! Not that any of you care because if you even read my post from yesterday, you didn't comment! You may not have even read it! I was suffering over here with NO SLEEP and you all didn't even care!

Kidding! It was Monday, you are forgiven! Anyway, to recap, I haven't been sleeping because I have a large dog who wants to get in our bed and sleep under the covers and we have to tell him thousands of times a night to get down, resulting in not sleeping one bit! Well, last night, we switched things up on him and switched the sides of the bed that we sleep on! And miraculously, it worked. I guess Max was just so confused that he didn't try to get on our bed! We slept more last night than we have in a while! It was great!

Another thing that I mentioned yesterday was that I was going to start telling you about some recipes that we were trying! Since I have a lot more time to do what I like to do best (cook) I can make more stuff! We had a pork loin in our refrigerator and I decided that last night would be the night it would end up on the table. It marinated all day yesterday in the fridge and then we roasted it last night. I made some Parmesan roasted potatoes to go with it as well. It turned out pretty good. I think I may change the sauce a little next time so it is less sweet (I don't like sweet things really). But all in all, this thrown together, last minute meal was pretty good, I would eat it again! It got approval from the husband too, so that is really all that matters right?! Here is a picture of the finished product:

Anyway, I am off to start my day! That means cleaning the floors in the kitchen! Rain this morning plus two dogs who love to play outside and can open the door to let themselves in equals muddy paw prints on my tile floor before I can catch them to wipe their feet!! Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Weekend and some help!!

2011-01-24T08:37:00.001-06:00

Well, this weekend was an eventful one even though I was a hunting widow because Emory was in AR hunting ducks! Friday night I went to the place that I work out (the dance stuff) for a special event that was called Sips n Strip. Basically it is what it sounds like except the dance they taught wasn't really a strip, it was just more of a slow, make you feel sexy dance. It was a lot of fun and I won a massage from the door prizes!!! :) That was awesome! Saturday, I got to help again at the bridal fair with my WONDERFUL wedding photographer Alicia! We always have so much fun! I think watching all of the different kinds of people is always my favorite part! I mean, you should really see these people! Then, I came home and put my feet up! There is nothing like standing up all day and then being able to sit in a comfy chair with your feel up for the rest of the night and watch predictable Lifetime movies! Sunday, I had a board meeting for a non-profit that I have been working with for a while now. That was fun, I will have to tell you about that later! Then, the husband came home and all was right in my world again!

Ok, now, here is where you come in with the help.....I didn't sleep one minute last night. Ok, maybe for a little bit from 5 to 6 (when the alarm went off). I don't have kids, I am supposed to be able to sleep all night for 20 hours if I feel like it! Nope, I don't have kids but I do have Max! He is that cute little Weim that all of you commented about in the snow! Well, as I mentioned, he has decided that he wants to sleep in the bed, under the covers and not on his bed under his blanket! He was doing so well, until the last few weeks or so. We tell him every time he tries to get on our bed to go get in his bed and he gets down and does so and then 5 seconds later he is back in our bed and the process repeats!! He is just too big to sleep in our bed! Literally he tried to get in our bed 5,726 times last night from 10 pm to 6 am. It was exhausting! I was ready to just let him have my spot and me go to the other bed because I was literally UP ALL NIGHT! Now, our other dog goes to sleep in his bed and doesn't get up in the night! Max used to just sleep right next to him until recently! This is where I need your help!! Have any of you had this issue and successfully remedied the situation? If so, PLEASE let me know what your secret is! We are going to try to switch things up on him tonight and see if that helps, he ALWAYS comes to my side of the bed ~~because he knows I am the softy~~ because it is closest to his bed. But something has got to give! This girl needs SLEEP! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Now, as for the blog, I hope I can start sharing some recipes with you guys! We have TONS of ducks in our freezer and we have got to start cooking them! I hope to maybe share some of the things we cook in our house (and not just duck) because we cook ALOT and love it! Anyway, I hope you all got more sleep than I did last night and have a wonderful day!

Weekend!

2011-01-19T09:46:00.000-06:00

I know it is Wednesday and I am just now updating my weekend, but I was BUSY and my husband stayed home from hunting so I got to spend lots of time with him, so blogging wasn't on the agenda. Plus, Monday was a holiday and yesterday I took a short road trip, so I wasn't around much!

Anyway, we went to see Little Fockers in theaters, it was ok. It wasn't up to the "Fockers" standard I don't think, but there were funny parts. But again, the whole thing wasn't as funny as the rest of them have been!

Then, we tried a new pizza place here in town with some of our good friends. It was GREAT. The owner of the place has won a Guinness Book of World Records award for Highest Pizza Toss. The food was great and the company was even better! It was fun to have a little date day out with Emory. We don't do that very often because we both would prefer to be at home, but it was so much fun!

I have also started working out at a place called DanceTrance. It is awesome. Basically you lose weight by dancing. They teach you dances and you do dances back to back for an hour! You will sweat your booty off! It is great so far! I have gone everyday this week! (This is only my second week to go because of the minor blizzard last week that caused us to all stay in our houses for 5 days straight!)

Anyway, I am catching up on blogs today and doing some housework and then relaxing with a book probably! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week! I will be back!

Seriously Snow, a Book for the year and Le Cresuet!

2011-01-13T08:43:00.001-06:00

Well, the snow and ice is still here in Alabama. Although, the roads seem to be clear according to my husband who has been to work the past two days. Schools, however, are closed for day number four! Yep, schools have been out all week and will be out again Monday for the holiday even if they are in tomorrow! It has been crazy! I haven't left the house all week. It hasn't really bothered me, because it is SO cold outside. And I HATE to be cold, so I would much rather stay inside with blankets and a heater and as many clothes as I can put on, because let's face it, you can never be too warm when it is something like -10 degrees outside. (Ok, maybe it is like 16 degrees outside, but whatever it is, it is too cold for me!)

I am excited that tomorrow is Friday though, even though it seems like everyday is the weekend when you are home! There is just something about the sounds of Friday and Saturday that change the mood! Since I haven't really been out of the house I have nothing new to report or talk about really. Other than the fact that I got really bored yesterday and got out the cookbooks and started thinking of things that I could cook with my Le Creuset. Oh, I haven't told you about the WHOLE SET of Le Creuset Emory and I got for Christmas have I? Well, we did. We now have 3 dutch ovens of various sizes, a saucepan, a grill pan, a huge skillet, a stockpot, a casserole dish and a braiser, all Le Creuset! We LOVE IT! We cook alot and this is a set that we fell in love with this summer when we got a dutch oven on sale. It is now just about all we will cook with besides our Rachel Ray stainless stuff. I mean it is AWESOME! So, when I am bored, I try to find recipes that will require the use of the most pieces of our set! We even bought this cute little stand so we could display it and not have to put it in the cabinets because we love it so much! Maybe I will start sharing some of our favorite recipes and our Le Creuset! So, without further adieu, here is our beautiful Le Creuset!

This isn't even all of it, but it was all that would fit on the cute little stand! :) LOVE

Elizabeth over at Musing Experiences is hosting a book club, for the ENTIRE YEAR. It is a book for the entire year to inspire happiness! Hop on over and join us!

Oh sNOw!

2011-01-11T09:06:00.001-06:00

Well, as you all know I live in Alabama. We normally have two seasons, cold and hot. Well, Sunday night it started snowing here and didn't stop. They were warning us to stock up on milk and bread, which flew off the shelves. Normally when they predict snow, it rains. It is when they don't predict it, is when it happens! Well, the weathermen were actually right this time! We woke up Monday to about 10 inches of snow! EVERYTHING has shut down. The banks aren't open, the stores are closed, schools are closed, the mail isn't running. Even the interstates are closed. We just aren't equipped to deal with the white stuff. Especially now, it is starting to melt, yet the temperatures are in the teens so it is freezing causing ice. Needless to say, we haven't left the house. We can't. There wouldn't be anywhere to go if we could! So, we are going on day 2 of being snowed in! It is actually really fun to be stuck in the house with my husband and two fur boys! We took advantage of the time together yesterday and played in the snow, made soup, made snow cream and took a really long nap. We then watched DVRd shows in order to avoid watching Auburn play Oregon in the National Championship game. We had lots of fun. Who knows what we will get into today, since we definitely aren't going anywhere today either. There are already muffins in the oven!! Enjoy some pictures of our time in the snow! (Which the little ones in our house LOVE!!)

Emory and I in the snow!!

ME and Max! He was taking a break from running like crazy!

A rare moment. Me , Max and Scout!

Pictures I couldn't upload the other day....

2011-01-06T11:23:00.000-06:00

Picture of our living room tree...

Ornament we bought on our honeymoon in France!

Eiffel Tower ornament from Target!

Santa Clause my dad carved!

Apparently that is all Blogger will allow for today. Maybe I will get back with some more tomorrow or later tonight!
Hope you all are having a WONDERFUL Thursday! I can't believe the weekend is almost here!

I interrupt your sleep....

2011-01-04T09:03:00.000-06:00

.....to sleep on your face and nuzzle under the covers at all hours of the night. No, I am not talking about my husband, I am talking about my six month old, sixty-plus pound puppy! He has found the bliss in snuggling in under the covers and gets on our bed every night to do so. Multiple times. After we put him back in his bed and cover him up with his blanket! You would think we had a child in our house. He has a bed, he has a blanket, we get up every couple of hours after we go to bed, and there are toys ALL OVER THE HOUSE, no matter how many times I pick them up in a day! Anyway, that is my rant! He is still stinking cute and I don't know what we would do without him. But it is so funny how different the two dogs are! Scout HATES the covers and is really neat with his toys and you hardly know he is around. Max on the other hand is literally always in your face letting you know he is here and you need to pay attention to him!

Now, the real reason for the post is catching up on Christmas and the joyous things that come with it! Since it was our first Christmas, we put up a tree together for the first time. Well, two trees. One thing that was a common theme for people to give us was ornaments, which I loved! Now here is the part of this post where I would show you all of the pictures, but Blogger is not letting me upload any of them. Maybe I will try again later and you will have a complete, unboring post!

The view from here....

2011-01-03T10:55:00.000-06:00

I am loving my new coffee cup that I got for Christmas from Anthro. My bro and his gf got it for me. There is just something about a dainty little cup that makes my coffee taste so much better, and makes me so much more productive (or makes all of your blogs just that much better). Here is to a new year, a new week, a new view and an awesome new coffee cup! :) I will be updating all week with some of my favorite gifts from Christmas that I am getting to use now that Christmas is over since I didn't get to update much in December! What are some of your favorites?

2011 : New Year : New Everything

2011-01-02T13:08:00.000-06:00

Wow, I can't believe I have been gone so long! I haven't blogged in a few weeks, but I must say, December 2010 was probably the worst, heaviest month of my entire life as of yet! First, on December 8, my grandfather passed away, this made the holidays especially difficult, then on December 30, my very first and oldest friend passed away. It was a tough thing to swallow on the first day of a new year, to bury someone who is 2 weeks older than me.

Even though December was very tough, the rest of the year was actually the best one yet! In January, Emory and I rang in the new year in New Orleans and The University of Alabama won the BCS National Championship! In February, we celebrated Emory's birthday with snow at the beach and getting ENGAGED! In March, I moved and in June, we were MARRIED and went on a fabulous 2 week honeymoon to FRANCE! The rest of the year was spent getting into the routine of being married! Then, we all know how my December ended up.

But, now that 2011 is here, I am very optimistic! I think there is no reason that this year can't be just as good as 2010! I am looking forward to everything that it has in store! A few goals that I would like to work toward: 1. Blog more. 2. Exercise and get back to my pre-wedding weight. 3. Read more books. 4. Travel more even on little day and weekend trips. 5. Spend more time with my friends. 6. Cook at least three meals a week. (We have been really good at this so far!)

Well, here is to commencing a great year! I know it is already the second day and this if my first blog post, but I am REALLY hoping to blog something everyday of the year!! Maybe one day I will blog twice to make up for missing yesterday! Anyway, thank you for hanging in there with me for 2010, here is to a great 2011!!!

M.I.A., Magic Tea, and Christmas Cards!!

2010-12-16T09:50:00.000-06:00

So, as you might (or might not) have noticed, I have been pretty MIA from blogging from the past week or so! Well, things have been a little upside down around here! We got notice the weekend before last that my grandfather was really sick and instead of sending him to the hospital again, they would just allow Hospice nurses to come to his house. On Monday, the family stayed over there all day and we knew things were bad. I came to work on Tuesday and Wednesday and then Wednesday I got a call from my brother (who lives in Nashville) that he was on his way down and I needed to go to my grandparents house ASAP because things didn't look good. So, I left work promptly and went over there. They called the whole family in. He wasn't doing well at all and it was just a matter of time. So, that afternoon at 5:30, my grandfather passed away surrounded by lots of family and friends. After that, the rest of the weekend was a whirlwind! We had visitation on Friday evening and the funeral on Saturday. It has been a rough week, to say the least.

Anyway, I am HOPEFULLY going to post some pictures of all of my decorations at home soon! I participated in an ornament swap and can't wait to show my ornament. But first, before I get into all of that, I wanted to post a huge shout-out to the folks over at Celestial Seasonings....(no, this isn't paid, I just felt like I needed to share). So, as to be expected, I haven't slept well at all in over a week now. I take sleeping pills over the counter but they either don't work or make me want to never wake up because they make me so drowsy! But, I HAVE to sleep! I am one of those that goes to bed at 9 and wakes up at 7 or 8. I had trouble finding something that would help me sleep. My husband and I were shopping at a new grocery in town when I noticed a new Sleepytime tea from Celestial Seasonings....(I LOVE hot tea, especially in cold weather). It was vanilla flavored, and Emory suggested I try it. I thought, yeah right, there is no way a tea is going to help me sleep. Well, I have drank a cup before bed the last two nights, and I must say, I have slept better drinking that than I have with anything else, EVER! Emory is even trying it and sleeping well! It is awesome! So, kudos to you over at Celestial Seasonings! You MUST try this stuff! Let me know if it works just as well for you! It is caffeine and gluten free! Anyway, hopefully I will be back soon with a Christmas recap!

The amazing stuff!

****I have lots of extra Christmas cards, if you would like one, email me, rebecca[dot]m[dot]winters[at]gmail[dot]com and send me your address and I will send you one!! They are cute, you know you want one! ;)

12 Gays of Christmas Relient Remix

2010-12-15T09:58:00.000-06:00

To Brighten up your day! These guys are too cute! I have had SO much going on, I will post an update soon!

Promises!

2010-12-01T11:31:00.000-06:00

Well, I am making promises to catch up with you guys soon! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We hosted our first married Thanksgiving at our house this year! Emory and I LOVE to cook and spend time in the kitchen! Really, I think if we had the opportunity to quit our jobs and have our own cooking show, we truly would! **If there are any food show execs out there reading this, we would LOVE to chat...give me a shout!** We have so much fun in the kitchen! We usually cook dinner every night together, so Thanksgiving was so much fun! We cooked enough for an army though! We still have an uncooked pan of dressing and sweet potato casserole that we put in our freezer! Emory smoked his first Turkey and man, it turned out absolutely wonderfully! It was SO good! We had his parents, sister and her fiance and my mom and step dad and step brother! Our new dining room table held us all! It was so much fun! Friday, all of the girls got up bright (well, dark) and early and went shopping! There were a few things that we got that we wanted but it didn't seem to me that the deals were that good this year! On Saturday, Emory and I decorated for our FIRST Christmas! We put up two trees! One in our living room that is a 9 foot tree and is beautiful and one in our dining room that is all Alabama! It is too cute if I must say so myself! I will take pictures tonight when they are all lit up and post them tomorrow! We decorated the outside of the house as well with lit wreaths on the windows and a huge wreath on the door and lit trees on either side of the door! I am SO excited! Now to get all of our presents and get them wrapped and under the tree! Our kids here at work have their first holiday show tomorrow, so I am busy helping get ready for that! I also have a busy weekend ahead! I hope you all have a wonderful week! It is Wednesday, so only two more days!! I will be back with pictures tomorrow, I promise!

Just catching up!

2010-11-17T15:53:00.000-06:00

Weird little tid bit before I begin....I have my Pandora station on and you know what is playing? "The Details are in the Fabric" by Jason Mraz (um, hello, that is where the title of my blog came from!) How ironic!

Anyway....I had a wonderful weekend! My husband and I got to FINALLY go to a game in Tuscaloosa together! Our story goes like this...we both spent four years in Tuscaloosa, 2003-2007, we didn't know each other one bit! We had mutual friends (kind of) but we never ran into each other! CRAZY I know! So, technically we have never been to Tuscaloosa "together"! And we certainly haven't been there for my favorite part, a football game! SO, this weekend, we went with some friends of ours to the game and had so much fun! Alabama beat Mississippi State so it was a great ending to a great day!

In front of the stadium!!

At the game!

As for this weekend, I am working a Henry Cho (a comedian) show on Friday night at work and then cleaning my house and addressing those awesome Christmas cards I got from Shutterfly (quickly, did I mention)!! Emory will be enjoying opening season! I can't believe Thanksgiving is upon us! Seriously ladies, if you haven't looked at a calendar lately, it is NEXT WEEK! Yikes! We are hosting it at our house for our first married Thanksgiving!

Well, I hope you all have a great rest of the week, it is all downhill from here! Oh, I am going to be hosting a 31 party, and I will be having a "catalogue order" portion, so be looking for more info on that because some of the proceeds go to a charity! In the meantime, go here to see their stuff!

A little survey for a Monday....

2010-11-15T18:06:00.000-06:00

So, I stole this from Alyse and decided I would do it as well! It is Monday , afterall! Although I do have to mention that those cards that I posted below, the free ones from Shutterfly, yeah I ordered them and they were here in less than a week! I am going to have them ready to go in a week! Yay! So excited! Anyway, here is the survey about my family...

1. What are your middle names? his - Emory mine- Marie
2. How long have you been together? about 15 months (married for almost 5)
3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? we pretty much started dating instantly!
4. Who asked who out? We didn't really ask each other out, it was just an instant thing!
5. How old are each of you? Him - 26 me - 25
6. Did you go to the same school? College, yes but we didn't know each other!!
7. Are you from the same home town? Nope! About 4 hours apart
8. Who is the smartest? He is!
9. Who majored in what? Emory - Electrical Engineering Me - Political Science
10. Who is the most sensitive? Neither really, but I guess me
11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? France
12. Who has the worst temper? Probably me

13. How many children do you want? No real definitive answer for this one yet....
14. Who does the cooking? We both LOVE to cook! We cook together most often!
15. Who is more social? Probably me.
16. Who is the neat freak? I am the neater of the two, but I am not really a neat freak.
17. Who is the most stubborn? Probably me.
18. Who wakes up earlier? Definitely me
19. Where was your first date? A double date with my parents (who introduced us) to dinner and drinks!
20. Who has the bigger family? Um, I guess they are about equal.
21. Do you get flowers often? No, but I am not really a flower girl. They just die!
22. How do you spend the holidays? At home this year!!
23. Who is more jealous?Neither really.
24. How long did it take to get serious? Instantly. When you know, you know.
25. Who eats more? Probably him, just because I am smaller!
26. What do you do for a living? He is an Engineer, I work for a non-profit.
27. Who does the laundry? I do mostly.
28. Who's better with the computer? Definitely him!
29. Who drives when you are together? Usually him, but I do on occasion.
30. What is your song? I dunno...our first dance was "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Lady Antebellum

Ok, that is what I have for you today! I am going to catch you up on our weekend tomorrow! :) Happy Monday!

Christmas Card

2010-11-05T16:22:00.001-05:00

Family Wall Red Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Here it is....

2010-11-04T12:26:00.000-05:00

Well, we have finally finished the dining room and we have a new table (minus 4 more chairs we are still waiting on). I know I have promised pictures, but I really wanted until we got the table and got our curtains hung so you could see the total effect! So, without further ado....here is the new dining room!

Here is the whole dining room...the new paint color, the newly hung curtains, the table, and our two curio cabinets!

Our Alabama dishes in one cabinet!

Our china/fancy stuff cabinet....

An up-close of the table (with 4 of 8 chairs) and silver charger plates just trying to see what looks best.

I didn't want to leave you without a picture of yours truly...(with my brother on the left and my husband on the right, grandmother and little step-bro in the background.) This is when we went to Lynchburg to Miss Mary Bobo's for lunch!

Hope you all liked my dining room tour...let me know what you think and what you think I can do to decorate! I need ideas! Should I keep it set with my china or what? We have 12 foot ceilings. Do I need a centerpiece? If yes, what do I need? Hope you all are having a great day! It is almost Friday! Finally! Leave me ideas!!!

Christmas is only 53 days away today!! Oh my!

2010-11-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

Did you know that as of today there are only 53 days until Christmas? Really? I can’t believe that today is the first day of November!! It is my first Christmas as a wife! I am SO excited! I would decorate tomorrow if we weren’t hosting Thanksgiving at our house! But you better believe that the weekend after, everything is going up! Since this has been a big year for us, I really would like to send out some special Christmas cards! Especially to people who were unable to come to the wedding or people who I don’t talk to that often! Since we have gotten married, been to France for our Honeymoon and added a furry addition to our family, I think it is safe to say that a photo card would be the best way to go! I usually just send out about 10 or 20 cards to people that I pick up from the generic card section, but I think 2010 was our year and we should share it in pictures! Shutterfly has some of the cutest cards! I don’t think one photo would be enough for us! I think we need about 4! One from our wedding, one from our honeymoon and one for each of our furry kids! They are after all, part of the Winters family too!

I like this one, because it has room to add what happened throughout the year! But I am not sure if it is too much. Although I think I like it!

I also LOVE this one because of the monogram (since it is our first Christmas as a family) and the room for pictures!

This one is cute too! It also has the monogram, but not as many pictures!

Which one is your favorite?? Please help me out! Also, if you too would like 50 free cards, check out Shutterfly’s blogger promotion and see how you can too!!

Thursday

2010-10-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

It's Thursday, so I thought that the title was fitting....although it is really because I just don't have anything clever to say! I am ecstatic that it is Thursday and the weekend is almost here. Really, I can't wait. Why? Well, funny you should ask. Since I have little time I will list you the reasons...
1. I am looking forward to spending time with my husband and family, it never seems like we get enough time together!
2. I am looking forward to trying to sleeping in (as much as Max will allow).
3. Cleaning my house a little.
4. Going to Lynchburg, TN to eat at Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House! If you don't know what it is, Google it! You will be so jealous of me!

Anyway...happy Thursday! Hope everyone has a lovely day! What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Four months ago today....

2010-10-26T11:14:00.000-05:00

....I was walking around TJ Maxx with one of my best friends wasting time before I went to my hair appointment! This was no ordinary hair appointment...it was the one on my WEDDING DAY!! I can't believe that four months has passed since I married my absolutely wonderful husband! We have had so much fun being husband and wife and I can't wait for many more years of fun! We spent our first two weeks of married life in France! Then, we celebrated my 25th birthday, then we added an addition to our family, MAX, the new puppy! If forever is just as awesome and adventurous as the past four months, our lives are going to be PERFECT! I am completely happy and in love with my very best friend! I can't believe four months ago I became Mrs. Winters and am loving every.single.second! MFNO!

My favorite picture of us in Nice..isn't my husband a cutie?!

Us on our wedding day!! So happy!!

Well, I am going to go enjoy the rest of my day being a four month newlywed to the best husband a girl could ever ask for!! Enjoy your Tuesday!

I don't care for Mondays....

2010-10-25T14:52:00.000-05:00

They really are no different than any other day, except they are a brutal reminder that the weekend is over and all together too short! I wish we had a more equal distribution of the work week and a relaxing weekend! Two days is just not long enough after working 5! It really is no fun! Then you have to spend Monday catching up to the back log of emails that you have acquired over the weekend then after lunch is about when I get to actually start my day after emails! It is crazy! It seems like that is all I do is send emails and make to do lists. Rinse and repeat!

Anyway...I can't belive this is the last week of October and November is right around the corner! Does this surprise you too? I just can't belive it at all! I mean before you know it, Christmas will be here! This year has been a whirlwind and has FLOWN by! Who knows, it may just be me because I have had sucha crazy, life changing year!

Well, here is to a new week! I hope it is a great week for everyone! My goal is to blog everyday this week! Fingers crossed I can get that done!

As promised....

2010-10-21T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I had such a busy weekend with the wedding and all, not to mention I was sick the entire time! I do have a few pictures that I will share! So, even though it isn't Wednesday, I have a feeling this post is going to be a little wordless... Here are some pics from the wedding and the weekend! When I get an updated picture, I will show you the dining room and the new color!

The Groom played baseball at Florida, so this is his groom's cake!

Me and Jenn taking pictures before the ceremony!

Jenn in the Bride's room showing off her cute shoes!

Me and my handsome husband at the rehearsal!

All of the bridesmaids at the luncheon!

It was such a beautiful wedding and so much fun! It was great to see my best friend get married and share in her special day! I will be back with pictures of the dining room! It really looks great! Have a great rest of the week and weekend if I am not back here before then!

It is now October....

2010-10-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

MIDDLE October to be exact, and I haven't been here since September! Shame on me! Well, I have some good excuses! I have been busy busy busy! Last week, we had fall break at work and we were off all break. Of course I didn't really take a break, I do have a puppy at home who is a huge ball of energy, and some other things to take care of. Emory and I decided to tackle the task of painting our dining room! We painted it a deep red, which was a huge undertaking! But, it was WELL worth it and the room is now beautiful! I might mention that we have 12 foot ceilings, so it was no easy process! But, it is done and looks great!

This weekend, we are going to Georgia for by BFF Jennifer's wedding! I am so excited! I think I mentioned her engagement way back in August of 2009! They got engaged at Disney World and are now getting married! So, it has been a long time coming and I couldn't be more excited! There is a whole list of things to do leading up to the wedding, so it should be a packed weekend for sure!!

Today is my brother's birthday! He is now 31 years old! I can't believe we are getting so old!!

Lastly, my wonderful husband defended his thesis yesterday and PASSED! That was great news and I know he is glad it is over! Now to see what is next, we don't know! Maybe a PhD? We shall see!

Well, sorry I have no pictures this post, but I promise some will come after the weekend! They are long overdue! Have a wonderful weekend, and I will be back on Monday hopefully!!

Wednesday Randomness

2010-09-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I am so glad that Wednesday is here. I must say that I am ready for the weekend to be here!! Next week is fall break at the schools, and since my work follows the school calendar (except the summers off thing) then that means I get a whole week off! I feel like I am going to be playing catch-up on a lot of things, like cleaning my house really well, and putting away things that are out of place! I might try to relax a little, if I get a chance!! Hopefully there will be a little bit of home-improvement later in the week that may or may not include paint!! :)

As far as finishing this week, I have lots of loose ends to tie up at work! Then a few things to do in the beginning of week for work! But I am SO glad it is Wednesday and the weekend is coming into view!! Have a great hump day!

Just one of those days...

2010-09-23T16:40:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days when you woke up, you could only hope the day got better instead of having the morning be an omen for the outcome of your day? Well, today is one of those days.

Oh well, at least it is Thursday and tomorrow starts the weekend! That is a good thing right?!

Hope you all have a happy Thursday and a wonderful weekend if I don't pop in before then...for now I am going to go perk up my day by looking at People of Walmart!

Some favorites...

2010-09-22T11:31:00.004-05:00

So, I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to stop in and tell you guys about a couple of great finds that have made their way into my life and won't be leaving anytime soon!!

Well, I had the day off on Monday so I used the time to run some errands and do some much needed house cleaning. Well, in Sunday's paper, there was a coupon for Soft Scrub's new "total" line. I was going to clean the bathroom so I decided I would use the coupon and get it to try. We have some mineral in our water that makes a line in the toilet, shower, sink or wherever water sits at anytime. And there is NOTHING that will clean it. That is until NOW....this stuff is absolutely amazing and wonderful! I LOVE it! I can't wait to get the kitchen kind and try it! I know, you all are laughing at me for getting all excited about a cleaning produce (my husband made fun of me too) but I have been trying forever to find something that will take away the "watermark" and I have finally found it and it is a great day!! My life will never be the same!!

Secondly, I splurged and bought the Nook from Barnes and Noble. I have been looking at them for some time now but I was really just questioning whether it was really practical or not. Then, Emory and I had to buy a new bookshelf to put in the spare room to hold all of my books that were all over the place, and I figured it would be practical in order to eliminate the stacking of book from floor to ceiling. And I must say it has been amazing so far in the two days that I have had it. It is great! And I am loving it!

Well, those are my new finds that I just had to share! If any of you try the Soft Scrub total stuff, let me know if it was just as amazing for you as it was for me! (By the way, I was not paid to endorse either of these two products, they are just that awesome that I needed to share!) Have a happy Wednesday!!

Place in this world...

2010-09-17T12:45:00.005-05:00

I know it is Friday and I should be really excited that Alabama is playing tomorrow and talking about them beating Duke..BUT I am not going to. I have some other news...

This morning I was getting ready to leave and Emory opens the door and I hear him get kind of startled and mention that I need to "Come look at this!" So, I go and look and there on our driveway, maybe three feet from our front door is this HUGE alligator snapping turtle thing. It was not what you would expect to see in a quiet neighborhood in Alabama on an almost fall day. I mean it was the weirdest thing ever. It was a good thing that Scout and Max didn't come bounding out the door like they usually do! This thing was fierce!! It really scared me a little. I mean, not enough that I didn't go grab the cell phone to get close enough for a picture, but enough that it kinda gave me the chills. It was gross and big! See:

Anyway, so we chased it away to the yard and were keeping our fingers crossed that it didn't crawl under the fence and get in our back yard where the pups would be sure to find it! It crawled away back to the small trench that is next to our house. Hopefully he is gone to live in the sewer with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe they can help him out. He certainly isn't welcome at my house! If he stayed around much longer, he would have become turtle soup!!

Well, happy Friday! I hope you don't have any crazy experiences this weekend! Keep your eyes and ears open you never know what you will discover in your own driveway!

Oh, and ROLL TIDE!

Wordless Wednesday (kinda)

2010-09-15T15:01:00.002-05:00

So, as expected, the boys' collars came in yesterday and I must say that they are SO cute!! Max's is still just a tad big, but he can wear it and it will be no time until he grows intoo it nicely!!

Happy Wednesday! Half-way through the week!!

As usual...

2010-09-14T13:37:00.004-05:00

Things have been pretty hectic around here! Although things are starting to settle into more of a routine! We are now into football season, which is going well for my Tide! Which means a happy Becky! Max is doing ok. He is a rambunctious little one! He is growing leaps and bounds!! We are still working on training everyday!! He is getting a lot better, but he is so headstrong, I feel like it may be a little more difficult than it was with Scout! But he is SO much fun! He and Scout are getting along so great! They play all the time! It is so cute!

So, since I have mentioned football season and the dogs, can I tell you how excited I am about my new purchase (which should be here today when I get there)...
I ordered 2 of these:

If you know anything about Alabama, you know that houndstooth is one of our things, so I thought this would be a great way for our little furry family memebers to participate in football season! It may be a little big for Max right now, but I am sure it won't take him long to grow into it!! They came from Crate and Barrel who now have pet accessories!! Hope you all have a fantastic week! Hopefully I won't be a stranger!

Looking back and fall and football and a funny

2010-09-09T11:09:00.003-05:00

So, I had no clever post for today, hence the absolutely random title. Maybe it will grab someone's attention, probably not, but oh well. At least YOU are here!! So, I was reading on someone's blog about the new "stats" button that is at the top of the blogger dashboard page and I clicked on it. It was all very interesting. But, the most interesting part is the number one google search that brings people to my page is "Toomer's Corner". WTH?? I mean, this girl is a BAMA GIRL all the way. Orange and Blue, Auburn and anything that has to do with it are just awful to me! I mean, I won't even eat an orange and blue m&m at the same time! Because I HATE AUBURN. I graduated from The University of Alabama and it is burned into my brain! That is just how it is! Well, that is SO funny that is what brings people here and it is all because of THIS POST that I wrote in August of last year. Ya'll it is FUNNY!! You have GOT to go read it. You will laugh and laugh and laugh, and if you are having a week like me, a little laugh will go a LONG way. It honestly has just a little to do about Auburn and Toomer's corner but more about poop and toilet paper. GO READ IT!!!

On another note, I am SO glad that fall is here! That means the weather is changing, the time is changing and I am ecstatic! Also, with fall comes FOOTBALL!! I can't get enough of football when the season is here. It helps to root for the reigning NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! I am really looking forward to this season! Roll Tide!

Well, since this post is random and now over, you need to go make yourself laugh! You won't be disappointed I promise!

Back Again!!

2010-09-08T16:19:00.002-05:00

I feel like I apologize for my absence way too much lately!! Things have just been a little more than hectic around here lately! We have officially had the puppy, now named Max for a whole week (plus some)!! He is sleeping through the night, he is bell trained to go outside and potty, he can sit, lay, come and heel! All in a week! I must say we have worked with him NON-STOP, but it has been so worth it! He has learned to get up on the furniture, which is ok with us. But it is so cute! When he gets much bigger, he won't be able to sit up there with me! HA! Last night was the first night that Emory and I got to sit down and watch tv and we didn't even sit next to each other like we normally do! Why? Well, because Scout and Max were fighting with sitting in the chair with Mommy and ended up with BOTH of them laying on top of me and each other! Needless to say, there was no room for Emory! One day, they will each be sitting on their own couch and then maybe E and I can sit together again!! Ha! He is doing really well, and is actually giving Scout lots of confidence! It has been really great! Well, that is my quick little update on me and the boys!! I will be back soon with a better one!!

Great birthday weekend!!!!!

2010-08-30T11:47:00.005-05:00

Well, I had a wonderful birthday weekend! I started it off by leaving work a little early to get a haircut which was amazing!! I added some layers and bangs! Then we went and saw Gamechanger, the movie about Nick Saban. It definitely got me in the mood for football season starting this weekend!!! We had dinner at one of my favorite restraunts and then had some drinks and enjoyed the beginning of fall weather and some live music.

Saturday, we hung an Alabama flag (that Emory got me for my birthday) and put out our alabama rug by our front door, and put new alabama stickers on our cars. Can you tell we are ready for football season??

Sunday, we grilled steaks at my mom's with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. We also added a new member to our family!!! He is an 8 week old Weimaraner and he is the cutest thing ever! We just have to name him! He is doing well so far, I hope he keeps it up!!

25 years....

2010-08-27T07:21:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that I am celebrating the start of my 25th year. It seems like yesterday I was blogging about being 24!! I had no idea what my 24th year on earth would bring, but it was an awesome one!! Here is a little recap....
1. I met my wonderful husband.
2. I spent new years in New Orleans.
3. I quit my job.
4. I moved.
5. I got ENGAGED!
6. I got MARRIED!!
7. I went to Europe for the first time on my honeymoon.
8. I saw the Eiffel Tower!
9. I got a new job (that I love)!!

That is alot of stuff crammed into one year. And that is only just all of the highlights. There are so many other things that I didn't even mention. I couldn't be happier. I have the most wonderful husband, the best family, and the best friends a girl could ever dream of. So, needless to say, 24 has been hands-down the best year yet. But, I am welcoming my 25th year with open arms! Here's to another wonderful year, and with so many wonderful people in my life to celebrate, it can't be anything but great!!

And since I never post pictures anymore, here are some of my favorites from the year 24...

** If you haven't checked out my last post about everything awesome, you should. It will explain where this great new look came from!! (Thanks again Miranda!!) Oh, and you should grab my button, because I definitely have one of those now!! Go, you know you want to!!

SHOUT OUTS TO AWESOMENESS!!

2010-08-26T21:03:00.003-05:00

Did you notice my awesome, no AWESOME new blog design?? Yeah? Well, the AWESOME MIRANDA over at Little Sailor Design completely transformed my boring little corner of the world wide web into something really cool. She is a great girl from West Virginia (she went to the famous school, Marshall) but is an Alabama fan living with her sweet family in Hawaii!! (jealous much?!) She did THE BEST job! You all should check out her design shop! Because if I haven't mentioned it yet, she is AWESOME!!!!! Like whoa!!

Next, Casey Donahew. I think you have heard him a few times, because I have mentioned him here before. E and I have traveled to see him a couple of times (only because he is usually only in TEXAS) and he is absolutely great (not as great as Miranda) and you should check him out ASAP!!!!! Go, NOW!

French Red Wine....it is amazing. If you don't have any handy..go buy some. You will love it. We liked ours well, you know, In FRANCE. Specifically, Villafranche sur Mer, overlooking the Mediterranean. But, you know, a bottle of French wine in Alabama can be just as good. Well, almost.

My awesome Husband...2 months ago today, I married my best friend. We have so much fun! He is THE BEST EVER!

My AWESOME BFF C, she sent me the BEST flowers at work today! She is awesome and I miss seeing her everyday at work. Soon...we will live in the same town, right? We have to.

So, out of this blog, you should have learned that you need to contact MIRANDA ASAP to make your blog (almost) as cool as mine. Next, you should play Casey Donahew, drink some French red wine and kiss your husband (or wife..or partner..or whatever fits in the blank). Oh, and be jealous of my best friend, because she is awesome.

The signs are all there...

2010-08-25T07:10:00.002-05:00

Pointing toward FALL!!! Yep, that is right! Just this week we started waking up and it was darker outside, it is getting darker earlier in the evenings. It is actually pleasant in the mornings and evenings, and you can just feel the changes in the air! I cannot tell you how excited I am!! This summer has been brutal! In facet, it has been one of the hottest on record here in Alabama. But, fall is just around the corner! That brings great weather, holidays, pretty leaves, my favorite clothes, and most importantly, ALABAMA FOOTBALL!!! That is the most exciting part! It starts in little over a week and I couldn't be more excited! What are your favorite things about fall?

Rewards

2010-08-24T07:06:00.003-05:00

We had a busy few days at work this weekend, so yesterday I had the morning off and didn't go in until around 2. I got a lot of things done around the house that I wanted to get done and then went to work. We raise money to provide dance classes, among other activities, to children with disabilities, whether it be physical, emotional, cognitive, or anything else, there are no limits. Well, my job is to be in charge of these programs. Yesterday, our classes started, which is why I had to come in to work. I must say that I had seen all of the pictures, heard stories, and even met some of the kids who are in the classes, but seeing them in action was something that no one can prepare themselves for.

Each child in the class is paired with a teenaged volunteer for the year, they have dance classes once a week. They have a holiday performance and a spring recital just like any other dance studio. The smiles on these kids faces is amazing. All of the programs are provided at no cost to the parents and is fully funded by donations and sales of tickets to other shows that go on in the theater. I am so excited to see these kids get the opportunity that everyone else does, to fullfill their dreams. Their parents are so proud too. This is something that their parents can only dream that their child could one day do, and our programs give them an opportunity that they don't get anywhere else. I am so excited to be part of such a wonderful organization. I am not sure who gets the biggest smile on their faces, the kids in the classes, or the people helping out who don't have disabilities, realizing just what a difference it makes. It is truly inspiring, and if you ever got the opportunity to see it, you wouldn't have a dry eye when you did.

I love my job.

So sorry ya'll....

2010-08-23T11:07:00.002-05:00

So I have no excuse for being MIA except well, life. As you all know, I started a new job and I dove head first into that. It is SO much fun, but like anything that you want to be successful in, it is time consuming. I do want to catch you all up, and I PROMISE I will carve some time out this week to do just that. I have a BIG week! Lots going on at work and I cross the quarter of a century mark on Friday. So, needless to say, lots going on and I will catch you all up as things go by....

Have a great week!! It's a big one over here.

What a weekend!!!

2010-08-09T06:31:00.000-05:00

I guess since I haven't blogged all weekend, I will have to start with Wednesday...so, since I don't have a TON of time, and I am so excited that I can't sit still for too long to write too much! Here is a quick recap....

Wednesday, had an interview with a local non-profit. (If you wanna know more, comment and I will reply back, I don't wanna post too much info on here).
Thursday, got the call that I got the job!
Friday, Emory had the day off and we ran errands all around town.
Saturday, I worked a bridal fair for my wedding photographer, Alicia. I had SO MUCH FUN!! Alicia had a wedding to photograph, so it was me, Alicia's husband Jay, and the other sweet girl that photographed my wedding, Brooke. We had so much fun talking to people! It was a blast and I can't wait to hang out with them more!
Sunday, we had a lazy day and I got everything ready to start my new job!

I am SO looking forward to what is in store with this job. It is a new position and so I get to sort of make it my own and make it work for me. I think it is going to be pretty awesome and very rewarding! I can't wait to get started!

Well, that is the VERY quick update, I am off to spend some quality time with my husband! It has been such a great weekend, we almost don't want it to end. Hope you all have a great Monday and a GREAT week!!

Around Here

2010-08-05T07:34:00.004-05:00

So, things have been pretty mundane around here. I mean it is August in Alabama so anything that doesn't involve sitting inside in the air conditioning is pretty much off-limits right now. I mean seriously if I go outside, I can feel my appendages starting to drip and it isn't from the sweat, it is because I am melting. Seriously, being made of sugar is not good in the South.

No for real, I know it is hot but it is also a widely known fact that we live in the South where it is cool for approximately 2 months of the year. It is known, so I am choosing the suffering by staying here, so I can't complain. Even though I do, but I am done because I do realize that I have control of the climate I choose. For me, I can stand the heat in order to have sweet tea, casseroles, seer sucker, boots, camo and a cute Southern drawl. Not to mention Mint Juleps on the wrap around porch every afternoon to beat the heat while walking around everywhere without shoes. (Ok, not really, but I thought I would throw that in there for those of you who have never visited these parts.)

Needless to say, things have been pretty low-key and we haven't really gotten out of the house much. I stay in as much as I can and am still trying to get things put away while still keeping up with the daily demands of a house. It is working out pretty well so far. Today is Emory's Friday, so we are looking forward to a long weekend together! It should be fun, and a lot of time spent indoors!

Happy Thursday! Have a great one and stay cool!

200 Posts!

2010-08-03T07:29:00.002-05:00

I can't believe this marks my 200th post! That is crazy! That is almost like writiing a 200 page book in little over a year! SO much has gone into those 200 posts! But nothing is more exciting then the past few months and the months to come! :)

I completely forgot that I was going to do 200 posts and was just going to let you know a few random things, so since that is what I was thinking, I am going to continue with that train of thought since that is all I can do. So, here it is in list form, sorry so boring, you will just have to be ok with it! LOL

1. Vistaprint is officially awesome!! Last week, it was advertised that they were offering some free items and all you had to do was pay shipping and handeling. SO, last Thursday I ordered some personalized notecards with envelopes, a return address label stamp, return address stamps and personlized sticky notes. All items were free and all I paid was shipping! I ordered them on Thursday and everything was here yesterday!! WOW! That was crazy and they are awesome!!

2. Speaking of return adress labels...all of those thank-you cards for the wedding gifts? They are DONE! Sent and done! That is a HUGE thing marked off of my to-do list. I have to get a few more stamps and then they will all be sent! It is such a great feeling because writing that many thank-you notes had become a daunting task!!

Now, since this is my 200th post, I think I should do something to celebrate. I will have to think on it and get back to you! In the mean time, go over to one of my IRL friend's pages and check out her giveaway and her cute little family too!! Have a great Tuesday!

FRIDAY!!!

2010-07-30T08:07:00.000-05:00

I am on my way to Destin to celebrate my best friend getting married!
This weekend is her bachelorette party! So many people were supposed to come, but unfortunately only two of us stuck with it to the end! But, it should still make for a wonderful (and drama-free) weekend with just the three of us! I hope she has a BLAST and we make it all she wants it to be!

As for home, the husband is home alone this weekend! I will definitely miss him! But maybe the weekend will go by quickly! I hope you all have a great weekend and I will see you all next week!!

What do I say?

2010-07-29T07:51:00.003-05:00

For months now I have been consumed with planning a wedding, a honeymoon, moving, and settling into a new life and routine. Now, the wedding is over. The honeymoon has come and gone. I have moved, although I am not quite settled. We have wedding remnants all over the house. Most of which includes gifts that need to be put away or returned, mints that were our favors, stacks of thank-you notes that are to be sent, address lists and a few other wedding things. Not that much left. As a matter of fact, hopefully after today, there won't be much at all.

Last night Emory and I were talking about the blog and he said, what are you going to blog about now? You have been talking about the wedding and honeymoon for a long time now, and now that it is all over, what are you going to talk about? I said, well, I guess just life. I mean it still goes on right? Even though I don't have any big plans or things coming up, life still goes on.

So, with that being said. I hope you all stick with me while I journey through life. I guess it is going to be fun to watch me navigate through life now as a wife. My first biggest hurdle: getting out of bed. If I can get used to that, I will be doing good. I mentioned it yesterday, but it is still getting to me. I used to get up every morning easily. I am big about getting up quickly and easily. I cook Emory breakfast and have some coffee then get on with my day. Now, I am having the hardest time getting out of bed. I need some motivation!

Well, I can't believe it is Thursday already! I am trying to finish my to do list today. I am going to be going to the beach this weekend for my BFF's bachelorette weekend. It should be really fun! But, I will miss my husband! This is our first time to be apart since we got married! But, it is just for the weekend! While I am at the beach, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! Thanks again for sticking with me! Can't wait to see where life takes us!

Honeymoon - Part Three (Final)

2010-07-28T07:45:00.005-05:00

Well, today, I have decided to turn over a new leaf. (Or really just get back into the old way of doing things) I am getting up when Emory gets up, I cook breakfast while he is getting ready and then he leaves for work by 7 and I am still up. I either get busy on my day or relax and read books or blogs and watch a little tv. But, I am at least up and doing something that I planned to do that day!

So, I am up and posting about the last leg of our honeymoon before 8 am! You should be very proud! And if you missed any of the other parts, you should go look at them!

Here it goes....we left Paris and took the train back down to the coast to Nice. Because Paris was so hustle and bustle, we decided to REALLY relax for our last few days and not worry about a thing. There were a couple of things we wanted to see/do but it literally took about an hour of the four days we were there. We got to Nice and stayed in the Sheraton. It was super nice! And since my husband is so awesome (or maybe because he travels so much for work, who knows) we were upgraded to a suite and spent our last few days in France in luxury. I don't know if you have ever been to Europe, but most of their hotels (unless it is pretty Westernized) have small, closet-sized rooms, air conditioning is sparse, and there is really no room to spread out. SO, being upgraded to a really awesome suite was the icing on the cake for our honeymoon! We had great views of the sea from a wall of windows! Needless to say, we didn't do much but enjoy the relaxation, sleeping til noon, enjoying a bottle of wine for lunch and dinner and sometimes in between! It was the PERFECT ending to the PERFECT honeymoon. We absolutely HATED coming home, but it had to be done. We did adopt a few things in France that we brought back. In no particular order:
1. Our love of coffee because theirs is so awful.
2. Melon and prosciutto sandwiches (OMG)
3. Taking time to enjoy our meals
4. Slowing down
5. The love of linen
6. Saying "Oui" instead of "Yes" and other French phrases
7. The lack of watching tv
8. Being more relaxed

We honestly had the perfect honeymoon that couldn't have been any better unless it had lasted longer! We really got to enjoy each other, enjoy being married, and learning a lot of things that we liked about really taking the time to relax and enjoy life. I think that our honeymoon is going to be something we will talk about forever. I can't wait to frame some of the awesome pictures we took as a daily reminder of just how awesome it was! So, here are a couple of pictures from Nice. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about our honeymoon!

Honeymoon..Part Deux...

2010-07-27T13:47:00.005-05:00

I am SO sorry I have been the worst blogger in history. Well, maybe not in history, but as far as I am concerned! I figured things would slow down and give me some time after we got back from the honeymoon and they haven't! Things have been non-stop ever since we landed! I need to clean house, finish thank-you notes, go to my bff's bachelorette party in Destin, put up gifts, return gifts, laundry and did I mention clean my house?! I have a million things to do and not enough time to do it! Did I mention that jet-lag is still kicking my butt? Because it is! I used to be such a morning person and now, I can't even crack my eyes open in the morning! It is awful!!! Anyway...you didn't click on this blog to read about my ever growing to-do list, you came here to see/hear about my honeymoon!

The second part of our honeymoon, we rode the train a few hours north to a little place you may have heard of..PARIS!!! We got there and took a taxi to our hotel and since we were staying literally a block away from the Eiffel Tower, we decided to go see that first thing. Now, I must say, I expected the thing to be big, but no picture, description, or book can do it justice. I was absolutely stunned when I saw it. It was magnificent! And beautiful! And did I mention it was GINORMOUS?? Because it was. I think this was one of our favorite parts of Paris. We ate lunch on the lawn in front of the tower, drank bottles of wine in front of it at night when it twinkled, and of course, we went to the top!! I could honestly just post about the Eiffel Tower. But, there was so much more....
We saw:
-Napoleon's tomb
-The Rodin Museum (with the Thinker)
-The Arc de Triomphe
-The Louvre (for free!!)
- The Mona Lisa and Aphrodite
-The National Assemblee
-Tullieres Garden
-A lavender garden
-The Obolisque (not sure how that is spelled)
-Notre Dame
-Where Marie Antionette was beheaded
-So many other things that I know I am forgetting!

We had some awesome food, really enjoyed each other! It was SO fast paced and we walked our butts off! Seriously, like 10 or more miles a day! We had a lot of fun, but were ready to go when we did. We could have seen a few more things, maybe, but we tried to cram everything in while we were there. But, again, like I said, we were grateful when we got back to the laziness of the Riviera! So, without further ado, here are some pictures from PARIS!!

Honeymoon (Trying Again) - Part 1

2010-07-21T07:18:00.008-05:00

Ok, since we know have internet, I am hoping blogger will cooperate with me and allow me to upload some pictures for you!!

On the first leg of our trip (there were three), we flew into Nice, France and took a limo (yes a limo, prearranged by my sweet husband) from the airport to the hotel about 15 minutes up the mountain outside of Nice. We went to a sleepy little town called Villafranche Sur Mer, France. Google it, you will love the pictures, and you can see the location. Anyway, we decided before we went that we wanted to really experience things in France. So instead of choosing all Westernized hotels that we were used to, we chose local hotels that had great ratings. We made the BEST choice in our first hotel, La Fiancee du Pirate. It was a cute little hotel that was run by the sweetest couple ever! They let us check in to our bungalow (yes, we had a private bungalow, again thanks to the sweet husband) at 8 am because our flight landed so early! But I am SO glad that we were able to do that! Since this was my first trip to Europe, it was also my first experience with a 9 hour flight! It actually wasn't too bad, but I was super tired. We decided that it wouldn't be worth our while to try to stay up and we had absolutely nothing to do, so we went straight to sleep for about 4 hours when we got there, and we didn't have a problem with jetlag the whole rest of the trip!!

So, like I said, we were on the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. The views each morning were absolutely breathtaking. We took it so easy during the first leg and just relaxed, forgot about everything, and really just enjoyed each other! I mean how could you not when every night walking to dinner (down a really steep hill and through the residential parts) we saw this:

Or even this:

And then, when we got to a seaside cafe every night for at least one bottle of wine and dinner, everything looked like this:

Then, we would stroll over to the Mediterranean Sea, stand in it for a photo-op and get pictures like this:

Here is one of the old town:

Needless to say, we didn't have a care in the world. The views were beautiful. The food was great. The people were so nice. We were totally and completely in love (I mean we still are, but it was SO new). We had the BEST time here. We were sad to leave when we did, but hopefully we will be going back very very soon! ;) (Ok, soon enough!)

Finally up and running!

2010-07-20T16:30:00.004-05:00

I am FINALLY back for real this time! Our internet has been fixed after what seemed like an eternity of it being out! But, anyway....I am working on a Honeymoon post that will be up shortly.

Until then, PLEASE go to my photographer's blog and look at the cute post she did about mine and Emory's wedding! Let her know how cute the pictures are! She sure took some great ones and we were so lucky to have had her as part of our special day!! So...what are you waiting on?? GO HERE NOW!!

And I will have some honeymoon pics up soon!

Honeymoon!!!!

2010-07-16T10:04:00.004-05:00

Well, our Internet at home is not working! For some genius reason, the line isn't buried, and the cable to cut some time while we were gone, so I am at Starbucks right now using the wifi until they come out and fix it!

So, anyway, this post may be a little short, but I PROMISE to give a better, fuller update as soon as my connection to the outside world (from home) is restored!!

As you may know, we went to FRANCE for 2 weeks on our honeymoon! We started off in Villafranche Sur Mer on the Riviera just outside of Nice and then went to Paris, then back to Nice.

Well, I can't get blogger to upload any pictures! Grr! I promise I will upload them as soon as I can! Have a great weekend if I am not back before then!

Wedding Blog - Part 3 - Reception

2010-07-15T15:08:00.003-05:00

So, after the what seemed like oh-so-quick ceremony. Emory and I, as Mr. and Mrs. took pictures with our guests and the grandparents and our families. Then, it was time to send people on their way to the reception so he and I could get some pictures just the two of us! After some awesome pictures (did I mention we had the BEST photographers EVER?!) we headed over to the reception to be introduced as man and wife and have our first dance. It was to Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Lady Antebellum. We had some technical difficulties getting the song to play, so while my brother downloaded the song on his iPhone and saved the day, my step dad gave the "father's toast." This was so much fun! We tried to include everyone since my dad and step dad are both special to me. I am SO glad we chose to do it this way, because it worked out so well! And it was just perfect!
After the dance and his toast, we cut the cake so we could then mingle and speak to all of our guests. The place was decorated amazingly. I don’t think any words are going to do it justice and I can’t wait to get the pictures back!! Again, that will be a whole new post! We had THE BEST time and again, we couldn't’t stop smiling! Our photographers had some props for some fun pictures of us and our guests, this was a lot of fun! We threw the garter, and my brother caught it! I threw the bouquet and my BFF Carlie caught it. That was GREAT!
Then it was pretty much time for us to go. Our car, a vintage Rolls Royce came at 9 and we left to Say Hey I Love You by Michael Franti. Everyone had sparklers and it looked so awesome, Again, I can’t wait to see the pictures! The car took us to our house where we changed clothes and then it was in the car to Nashville where we spent our first night of our honeymoon! Which will bring some more posts. Here are reception pictures for now though….

Wedding Blog - Post 2 - Wedding Day

2010-07-14T09:33:00.006-05:00

After going to bed rather quickly on Friday night, I woke up bright and early on Saturday SO excited! My mom and Carlie made sure I remembered what day it was, so they sang wedding show tunes to me! Ha! It was cute, and just added to my excitement! For my bridesmaids' gifts, I gave them a cute bag with their initials filled with wedding day essentials such as flip-flops tied with ribbons, a make-up bag, tissues, lip gloss,a tank that I made that said "bridesmaid" and note cards. It may have had more things in there, but I just can't remember at the moment! I wish I had taken a picture of them, but I simply forgot!

Anyway, I made myself a tank top as well that said "Property of the Groom" on the front and "I DO" on the back. It was fun to wear it on the wedding day to get ready. Anyway, back on track....Carlie and I got ready (I must add that I took the LONGEST, BEST shower that day because I was just literally soaking it all in. I wanted to remember every moment and enjoy every second of my day! This started it all off wonderfully! Anyway, after we got ready, we headed to the nail place again, this time just for her. We got her a manicure and pedicure oh and chik-fil-a first for breakfast. Then, I had a hair appointment at 11:30. Funny little thing, Carlie and I got done with the nails early and didn't want to go home just to come back, so we did what every girl would do, we went shopping!! :)I thought that it was funny, the morning of my wedding, we were SHOPPING! Really, we were just wasting time and didn't buy anything, but it was still funny!

All day long, I was just so happy and excited! Not once did I get nervous, not once did I cry. I was cool, calm and collected all day! It was literally the best day ever! Everyone kept asking me how I was keeping so calm! But I must say that I was just SO excited that it was my wedding day finally, I was getting married to the most wonderful man on the planet, and all of the hectic planning that my mom and I had been doing was finally all together and the day was HERE and better than expected!! :)

After I got my hair done, it was time for the girls to come over and get ready. The photographers were there and my mom's BFF came over and had lunch for us ready. We ate lunch and started our make-up. Everything was still so happy and calm. Again, it couldn't have been better. Then, it was time for us to head to the church so I could put my dress on, the girls could put theirs on, and we could start taking pictures. I was SO ready to put my dress on! I couldn't wait to have it on, since I knew I could only wear it once! After I got my dress on, we started taking pictures. I just could not stop smiling. I was SO anxious to see Emory though, but I must say, the day went by SO fast! By the time I was done taking pictures with just me, my girls, the groomsmen and a few with my family, it was time to hide so everyone could get in the church and we could get started!!!! My mom and I didn't have to worry about anything on the wedding day. Everything was decorated and just beautiful! I had a harpist, and as soon as I heard the chime on the harp for "Hear Comes the Bride," my smile got even bigger and I was on my way to see my groom! I absolutely could not wait!!

After I was in the church and my dad gave me away, everything went by so quickly. Amy (Emory's sister) read some bible verses, my brother (emotionally) played guitar and sang a song, then it was our turn to say our vows, exchange rings, and kiss. We were presented as Mr. and Mrs. During the WHOLE thing, we both had the biggest grins on our faces! We literally couldn't stop smiling! We were both so excited! Everyone kept saying that we were the two happiest/smiliest people ever! It was so cute!

Everything went just as planned, everything was smooth, beautiful and everyone was SO HAPPY! There were storms all around us, but it didn't rain one drop during the day where we were! So, without further adieu, here are some pictures I have stolen from people's facebooks...we don't have the professional pictures back yet, but I am sure when we get them, that will be a whole other post!! Enjoy!

Wedding Blog 1 - Rehearsal Dinner

2010-07-13T15:27:00.003-05:00

I think the last time I talked about the wedding before it happened, I was worried about how slowly the week of the wedding would actually go. Well, surprisingly, it didn't drag by like I thought it would! It actually flew by and before I knew it, rehearsal day was upon us! Emory and I actually spent the morning with his best man and his wife shopping for The University of Alabama apparel for them since they were out of town and can't get it where they are from! It made the day fly by and pretty soon, I was getting my nails done with one of my bridesmaids and getting calls and texts from the wedding party that they were on their way, some almost there and some stuck in traffic, but everyone was definitely on the way! We had a few issues with the tuxes not fitting and some of the ties weren't what they were supposed to be, but in the end, everything worked out.

My mom and step dad headed to the church early to clean it up and start setting the few things up that we were bringing. Emory and I were there shortly after, most all of the wedding party showed up (besides two that were stuck in traffic from Atlanta) but rehearsal went smoothly and quickly and everyone knew what to do for Saturday. Everyone was so excited that the atmosphere was great. We all headed to the hotel where most people were staying so we could have the rehearsal dinner (we had it catered by a BBQ place that was famous where we went to college and all of our wedding party went to the same college, so it was only fitting. We gave out our presents and then our maid of honor and best man gave the cutest speeches ever. We couldn't have been happier with our wedding party and the way everyone just meshed and got along!

After the dinner, we decided we would all go our for some drinks to just relax and to just get to know everyone. Some of them had never met, and I had never met 2 of the groomsmen. So, we all got some drinks and had the best time ever. There were no nerves and everyone was hanging out like we had known each other forever. It couldn't have been more perfect!! It was getting close to midnight, so Emory and I had to go our separate ways. Wes and Liz took Emory home and Carlie came with me to my parents' house. We stayed up talking about what the next day was going to bring, but thanks to a couple of drinks, we were able to go to sleep rather quickly! Which was a good thing, considering the next day was going to be a busy one!!
Here is a picture someone snapped of the girls at the rehearsal dinner. Sorry all of us look less than our best, but everyone had been traveling, it was the end of the night, and it was HOT! (Did I mention the church had no A/C?)

I'm back!

2010-07-12T16:37:00.001-05:00

I have so much to share! we got back from France late on Friday night and this morning I officially changed my name! I have mountains of laundry to finish and a new routine to create. and of course I have so much to share! my internet is not working at home, so I am Blogging from my phone, but I promise the flood of wedding and honeymoon blogs are on their way, no matter how I have to do it!

Be home soon.....

2010-07-08T05:00:00.001-05:00

I am still enjoying newlyweded bliss, but I will be back with everyone soon...hang in there!! ;) Pictures to come ASAP!!

Here is a wedding tease picture:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=45574621&l=fddcc37073&id=27400481

Bonjour!!

2010-06-30T05:00:00.000-05:00

Bonjour from France!! (Well, this is a scheduled post..) When you all read this, I will be in FRANCE with my wonderful husband! Hope you all are having great weeks!! Can't wait to be back and show you pictures!! (Well, I guess I can wait, I AM on my HONEYMOON afterall!)

Today....

2010-06-26T05:00:00.001-05:00

I change my last name!!!

Today is my wedding day and I FINALLY get to wear my wonderful dress and marry the man of my dreams!! I will become Mrs. Winters!!! :) Have a great day!!

Wedding Eve!!

2010-06-24T21:48:00.004-05:00

So, I have been meaning to get on the blog ALL WEEK LONG!! But, as you can imagine, since it is my wedding week, I am running around getting all of the last minute things done, which includes but isn't limited to packing for a 2 week honeymoon! LOL Which I am in the process of doing right now!!

Tomorrow is rehearsal and then Saturday is the wedding!!! YAY!! I am so so so excited!! I hope you all have a great week, and hang in there I will be back around July 10!!

Show us your life - Proposal Stories

2010-06-18T08:27:00.001-05:00

So funny that Kelly is doing proposal stories today! We are getting married NEXT WEEKEND, so this is perfect timing!!!! :)

We went to Orange Beach! Even though it was chilly, it was still really pretty! I mean who doesn't like waking up to the ocean everyday! We went down to celebrate E's birthday on Thursday, but little did I know, so much more was planned! E and I are both big cooks so we decided we would cook more than go out to eat, so on his birthday, we cooked the BEST shrimp dish EVER! I made him a Key Lime Cheesecake for his birthday before we went. Anyway...we cooked dinner and were sitting around enjoying each other and wine when he asked for some cheesecake! He mentioned that he as going to go change clothes and get comfortable if I would fix the cheesecake. He came back to the kitchen a few minutes later and handed me a present. I probably looked at him funny and he said, I got you something for MY birthday! I thought that was odd, but opened it anyway. It looked and felt like a book, so I assumed that is what it was. But I opened it to a book that had two sides. One side was a picture of a beautiful ring and the other side were the words..."Will you marry me?" I was shocked at this point, looked to see that E was on one knee with a ring in his hand. I think I said, "Is this for real?" and He asked me if I would marry him, I said yes! That is how he wanted to celebrate his birthday!! Isn't that sweet?!

We enjoyed the rest of the weekend in newly engaged bliss!
You can click here for the pictures!

Friday!!

2010-06-18T07:45:00.003-05:00

I am SO glad that Friday is already here! I LOVE weekends and I am ready for this one! You guys are awesome with all of your book suggestions! They should keep me busy for a while. Not that I need that much for the next 8 days, but I may! I am incoherent lately it seems like. I can't think straight and I don't make sense with my sentences, my brain is just in 500 places at once. I have to email and talk to so many people and try to coordinate so many schedules it isn't even funny! But only 8 more days and I won't have to do that any more. I will be away from any contact with the outside world for 2 weeks and it is going to be glorious! A little breather is exactly what I need!

I have a busy weekend ahead with a birthday and father's day to celebrate, and last minute wedding stuff to finish. I hope you all have a Happy Friday and a great weekend!! Miss Sassy is getting married in NY tomorrow! So, if you get a chance, go wish her a happy wedding day!!

10 days.....

2010-06-16T08:52:00.002-05:00

Just a warning, this post is all over the place. I guess I am all over the place with excitement and I can't focus on much at all these days. Everytime I tried to say something to E last night, I kept forgetting my thoughts and mixing up my words! My mind is on June 26.

We are down to the 10-day countdown people!! Ahh!! SO EXCITED! The whole engagement has gone by so fast until now! This week is dragging and I am sure that next week will be even worse! Oh well, it will come in 10 days no matter how long it seems!!

So, random, I am watching tv right now, just Fox News to get caught up on a little bit of what is happening in the Gulf and seeing some politics, since I have left that world for a few months....and I saw a commercial for the church of scientology. Random. I have never ever seen anything like that.

On another note, I was thinking about people working in public service. Whether this be working retail, working at a doctors office or just somewhere where you deal with the public, I think there should be some tougher screening rules. I hate it when people act like you are bothering them by shopping at their store or calling their office to ask a question. I realize that there are some annoying people out there who ask ridiculous questions or just get on your nerves, but that doesn't happen constantly. I hate it when people are so rude. There are honestly other options for employment if you don't like people or if you can't fake nice. I mean really, get over yourself and BE NICE or get another job, I am sure there is someone else who could do it better.

On the last note, I am looking for some good books, again. I feel like I ask this question every week! Ha! I love reading and it really helps me pass the time. Looks like I am going to need 518 books to pass the time the next 10 days! Happy middle of the week day! Only 2 more working days then the weekend is here! Yay!

Weekend!!

2010-06-14T16:13:00.002-05:00

This weekend came and went all too quickly. I mean, not really, I am ready for the next 12 days to FLY by!! ;) I was home by myself this weekend because E went with his friends to Destin for his bachelor party!! They braved the oily seas of the Gulf and went deep sea fishing.(There was no oil there when they were fishing, but it is moving in.) It sounds like they had such a great time!! And they brought back some yummy fish! I can't wait to cook some (hopefully tonight)! As for me, I was expecting to sit around all weekend bored and lonely, but instead, I went to eat Friday night with one of my bridesmaids, then Saturday I took a roadtrip to Birmingham and met one of my BFFs Carlie and she pampered me! We walked around the mall 23 times (the first time, we weren't paying attention and were talking instead, the other 22, we actually looked at stuff). We ate an awesome lunch, then we went to the movie! It was such a GREAT Saturday! We always have so much fun together! Then Sunday, E came home sooner than I was expecting and we went to my parent's house to grill out. Can you believe that in only 12 days, I will be getting MARRIED??? I am over.the.moon. excited, but I feel like time is standing still!! At least we have started a new week! I hope you all have a great Monday!!

Oh, and don't forget, I am still looking for some guest bloggers while I am on my honeymoon, if you are interested, email me, rebecca.shepard@yahoo.com!!!!

Crazy Busy!!

2010-06-09T08:25:00.002-05:00

So, we are gettong down to the wire now! 17 days to go!! I still have a few little things left to do before the wedding but not that many!! I am trying to get the house all clean and ready before we leave for the honeymoon so we can come home to a nice and clean house to start things off right!! E is going to the beach this weekend for his bachelor party! They are supposed to go deep sea fishing, but with the oil and all, it is still up in the air whether they will get to or not! We will see! But, that means I have the weekend to myself and I will have plenty of time to clean the house, not that there is much left to clean seeing how I am home everyday. But, I do have to start packing too! Now that we are getting closer to the wedding, the days are seeming longer and longer! Which is making the weeks DRAG by! It feels like June 26 is NEVER going to get here!!

So, speaking of June 26 and being gone for a while on the oh-so-anticipated honeymoon to FRANCE, I was going to ask you guys a favor.....would any of you be willing to guest blog here one or two times (depending on if anyone is interested) while I am gone, to keep people entertained! I will be setting up a few posts before-hand, but certainly not enough I imagine! Anyway, if you are interested, you can email me rebecca.shepard@yahoo.com. I would GREATLY appreciate it! Well, it is only Wednesday, so that means a few more days of the week to go. I have felt it was Thursday since yesterday! Boo! Hope you have a great day, and I am sure I will be back before the week is done!

As Promised....

2010-06-03T07:46:00.007-05:00

I promised you guys that I would post some pictures of the swing and fence. Well even though I really wanted to take some pictures at night, I snapped a few this morning. (Please excuse the mess on the back patio, it is what happens when you have ongoing projects!)

Here is the swing...

The fence and the peach and apple trees...The sun was shining bright, so I am not sure if you can see it too well....

Here is the back patio with the pergola that E built a year or so ago, you can't really see them, but we hung lights on the underside earlier this year and it is really pretty at night (there are also grape vines on all four corner posts that are eventually going to grow over the top so it adds a little more shade...

Here is our neighbors house....we came home from memorial day weekend and found something that looked all too familiar in their back yard...

Well, I am off to do a few things around the house. I am going to meet the harpist who is playing our wedding and talk about the songs he is going to play!! Hope you all are having a GREAT week! It is Thursday after all, so the weekend is SO close!

Lots to share

2010-06-02T08:09:00.006-05:00

Well, I am finally back! I have lots to share. Quickly, I had my bachelorette party in Atlanta 2 weekends ago. It was pretty uneventful, which is why I am kind of breezing over it. But, here are some of the great gifts that my friends gave me before we went out...

This weekend, E and I went to Little Rock, AR to go see his best friend and his wife. We had a nice lazy weekend. We did go to Riverfest and saw one of our favorite bands, Cross Canadian Ragweed. Here are the two pictures I took from that...

Lastly, E and I ran our first 5k together on Monday! It was the Cotton Row Run in Huntsville, which is a huge run here for Memorial Day! It was really fun! It was so hot and humid! But it has really motivated us to keep going and run more and more! It is really awesome! We are still running! Here is a before the race and a post race picture....

Now, I PROMISE I will post pictures of the fence, garden and swing either later today or tomorrow! They are awesome! Our back yard has really become our oasis and it is so nice. Now, if we could only keep everyone from being so envious and taking our ideas! LOL

Update is coming!

2010-05-28T09:18:00.002-05:00

I PROMISE I will have an update soon from last weekend. I will say that the "bachelorette" party was less than desirable really, but I also don't really drink or go out much at all, so that contributed to it. Today, I am on my way to Little Rock to see e's best friend and his wife. It should be a fun weekend away. On Monday, we are running a 5k together! Wish us luck on that one! I will be back with an update on the past two weekends, the fence, the swing, and the wedding which is 29 days away!!! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Weekend!

2010-05-21T20:19:00.001-05:00

I am on my way to Atlanta this weekend with some of my best friends (and bridesmaids) for a weekend of fun! If you are in the ATL area and want to celebrate, email me!! I am going there for my....

When I left the house, E was destroying, er, I mean taking down carefully, the mantel in order to lower it and mount our tv over the fireplace. We will see how it looks on Sunday upon my return...pictures to come! Happy weekend!

Perfection! Updated

2010-05-19T08:55:00.003-05:00

So I can't believe Wednesday is already here and I haven't even mentioned anything about my weekend!! First, on Thursday I met a friend that I haven't seen in 15 years and things fell into place exactly like we left them! It was as if she never left! I must say, it was perfect. We met for lunch at 1 and I didn't get home until after 5:30 that night! Needless to say we have already made so many more plans for the future!

Then, E and I headed south to his sister's graduaion. We won't even talk about how terrible and unprofessional that even was, but it was pretty bad, and I will leave it at that.

Now on to fun stuff....Monday, I had my first dress fitting! It was my first and last! Yep, when I tried my dress on, it fit perfectly! Even my shoes were perfect and it doesn't even need to be hemmed! I was SO excited! I could wear the dress tomorrow if I wanted to! No worrying about getting it fitted again! It couldn't have been better! Then yesterday, we met with the lady in charge of the church decoration and the reception. It is going to be perfect!! The place we are getting married is so unique! Do you remember the movie Tom and Huck with JTT? It is where the movie was filmed! (Sneak Peek) So, it was so important to E and I to stay with the character of the town! The flowers and candles will be in mason jars. The flowers are all white. It is going to be great. I can't wait! I REALLY can't wait to show you all pictures.

But for now...I am going to go address invitations. I will show you the fence tomorrow hopefully! Happy Wednesday!!

Exciting Day!!

2010-05-13T08:06:00.002-05:00

So, today is an exciting day. As I mentioned, I am having lunch with a friend I haven't seen in almost 15 years!! I am so excited to catch up and talk about all the changes and where our lives have taken us! It should be very interesting and have I mentioned that I am so excited! I hope I have some pictures to show you later!

On other news, tonight I am going to clean up a bit and pack. E's sister is graduating from college this weekend, so we are going to go see her graduate. It is crazy that another year has passed since we graduated and it has been three whole years since our college graduation! It is crazy how time flies!! We are going to drive halfway and spend the night and then drive the next morning. Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and weekend in case I don't get back to you before then! I'll be back with lots of pictures I imagine!!

Laughter

2010-05-12T08:18:00.003-05:00

Laughing is so much fun.
Laughing is contagious.
I LOVE to laugh, I laugh when I hear other people laughing.
Don't you just LOVE to laugh?

Yesterday when E was walking out the door, I said, what should I blog about today? He said, I dunno, write something funny, make me laugh. People, I seriously thought about that all day yesterday. I just couldn't be funny on command. I couldn't think of anything that has happened lately that is funny. Except when running one morning some ducks scared the pee out of me, but you had to be there I think and you have to know my pure hatred to anything that has feathers and flies.
I also thought about how my body is giving me a taste of what it is going to be like to be old. Complete with achy knees, falling asleep at 9 even after an afternoon nap, watching the news in the morning, at noon, and at 5 and 6. It is amusing to me seeing how I am not even half way to 50 just yet. But again, something you just have to see.

So, last night, we were enjoying each other and poking fun, and just laughing. Pure and simple, innocent laughter. We were laughing at each other, with each other and out of love. It was just so much fun. I am SO thankful that I am able to enjoy that. I remember times when I didn't really do much of that. But now, things are so happy, carefree and so full of love! So, E, sorry I didn't write you a funny post, but thanks for making me laugh, laughing at me, and laughing with me! Here is to many more years of it!!

On another note....running is still going great, we are up to 2 miles straight already. It is going well, and it really makes you feel great. Tomorrow, I am SO excited. I get to have lunch with a friend that I knew back in middle school, then she moved to Washington and I haven't seen her since. Well, she is back and it is going to be SO MUCH FUN catching up. I will have to post pictures and let you all know how it goes! It is Wednesday! Which means we are almost at the down side of the week!! Hope you have a great Wednesday and a great rest of the week. Laugh often!

Weekend Update

2010-05-10T08:04:00.002-05:00

I seriously can't believe it is Monday again! The weekend went by way too fast! Friday was E's day off. (He works more during the week so he can be off every other Friday). It is great because every other weekend is a three-day weekend for us. However, we don't always have a ton of fun! This Friday, we took advantage of the sunny skies and high temps to work on the fence. When we started, all that was done were the posts set in concrete. We made a trip to Home Depot and got the 2x4s that go cross-ways. We got ALL of those up and then we started on the pickets and the gate. Saturday, we were going to get up again and work on it, but it didn't work, we were just TOO tired! So, we took Saturday off and relaxed a little bit. Sunday, was mother's day. E and I got up early and we prepared lunch. We were cooking a roast and homemade rolls. So, we got all of that ready and then went to church. After church, we ate the yummiest lunch every with my parents and my brother. Then, we came home and got busy on the fence again! We decided to invest in a nail gun instead of using the hammer. Man, it made a HUGE difference! We are almost done with the whole thing. We would have finished yesterday, if we had not run out of pickets! So exciting! We ALMOST have a WHOLE fence and the best part about it is that we have done the whole thing by ourselves. Just the two of us. It is going to be a great accomplishment that we will be proud of when it is finished! It has also been so much fun spending so much time together with no distractions!

On to other things, we are still running and doing well! Even though it was HARD to get up this morning, we did it, and are moving right along! Oh, and I got a call this weekend that MY WEDDING DRESS IS HERE!!! Woo Hoo!! Now, I just have to make an appointment to go have it fitted. Hope you all had a great weekend and have an even better week! Don't forget to keep remembering those in Nashville.

Cinco de Mayo Fail

2010-05-06T08:16:00.003-05:00

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, E and I were so excited about trying out a new Mexican restaurant that was just down the road. We went right at 5 and got there before there was a crowd. The first sign that it was going to be a disaster should have been when there was NO ONE in the restaurant and they asked if we had called ahead for reservations! We were like um, no, you just opened like two days ago and this place is HUGE, is a reservation really necessary? Then, after we said no, miraculously a table opened for us. Hmmm.....
Well, fast forward TWO HOURS LATER....we got our food. It was cold, gross and inedible. Seriously. I mean nothing is worse than bad Mexican food. It was the worst experience ever! I mean, I understand it was Cinco de Mayo, and we expected a wait. But not 2 hours (when we got there early with no one there) and getting cold food. I mean it was bad. So maybe we will try it one more time when it isn't a holiday, just to give it a fair chance. But if it is no good, then, I seriously doubt we will go back. It was THAT bad.

Now, on to other things. A friend of mine,Christen, from Montgomery has been pregnant with twin girls and she recently delivered them at 28 weeks. They are in NICU of course. She seems to be doing well, but the sweet baby girls could really use your prayers!

Happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here! Which means that fence building resumes tomorrow! Yay for my arm muscles! Hope you all have a happy Thursday and a great Friday!

*The Details are in the Fabric*

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