Ahhhhh - The Weekend!

Oh happy weekend - I live for the weekends, for time off of work, for sleeping in and laying on the couch watching some crazy reality show and checking my facebook and eBay. This weekend - however - was the opposite of lazy. I am proud, I have been pretty productive this weekend, I blame it on my Starbucks Iced Mocha (non fat/no whip) for giving me insane energy to conquer the mound of laundry that has been taunting me all week!

Don't get me wrong, most weekends Trey and I are somewhat productive - we pick and choose chores and items to check off our growing list. But we also give ourselves plenty of R&R time.

Well, Friday I was MOD (manager on duty) and I worked from 8 am - 11 pm. Well, when I got home - I couldn't fall asleep to save my life. I was so worked up, so I curled up with the doggies on the couch to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic on dvd. 3 am rolls around and I am still up trying to find a boring show to watch to put me fast asleep. Nope. Didn't work. So, I finally fell asleep around 4 am or so and of course slept until 1 pm on Saturday! I love sleep and sleeping in, but I feel useless after I pass 11 am. Trey works nights now, so he came home at 8 am and fell asleep beside me.

Long story - but I got up and made myself a big bowl of healthiness. MMMMM i love fruit salad in the summer!



Sophie joined me while I ate my fruit on the couch still trying to wake up...


A little bit later Lauren and I decided to go for a walk at the Big Damn Bridge - which turned out to be a fabulous idea! It was so nice outside (unbelievable for August in Arkansas) and we walked and talked for a couple of miles...

Trey and I decided to go to dinner at one of our local favorites: La Palapa which is a wonderful mexican restaurant. It is so fresh and authentic - to die for!! Plus, since we have been doing so well on our weight loss competition (I am down 10.5 pounds!) We wanted to treat ourselves for the outstanding progress. It was soooooo yummy, we haven't been there in 4 weeks which is HUGE for us - we used to go at least once a week - AT LEAST. ;)

There are several movies we wanted to see and District 9 was one of them. We have heard great reviews and everyone seems to love this movie - and I happen to LOVE scary/freaky movies so off we went. Well, let me just say that I was highly disappointed. I mean, seriously, it was weird, more like a documentary style, and kinda sad. I think the concept is cool and interesting, but It was not for me - I left very unsatisfied and bummed it didn't live up to the reviews. At least to me it didn't.

Onto to exciting news! Remember Project Shutter? Well, we finally got around to hanging the painted shutters back up! (yeah like 2 weeks later haha) But they look fantastic - we are thrilled at how they turned out. From green to black and what a difference it makes on our house - once the door is painted red it will be wonderful!

Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to show a quick picture of my fabulous new lunch bags that I take to work. Aren't they so adorable?? I found them on the same website as our reusable grocery bags on one of my past posts.



And who says your lunch bags can't be accessories? And cute ones at that! ;)

Have a Fabulous week!!

A Time to Pray...

I wish I had a positive post to write today, since Fridays are typically such a happy day for me. However, this Friday is different...

Please pray for this family - there are no words to describe how horrible their situation is right now. They lost their twins in July (drowning accident) and they are pregnant with a baby due in 3 months. I cannot even begin to comprehend their pain and emptiness - but I can lift them up in prayer... please join me...

http://ramerbunch.blogspot.com/

I am in LOVE!!!!

We had a busy day today! Our brand new kitchen appliances were delivered this morning - new fridge, stove, and dishwasher!!!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen (it needs it desperately) and this was one of the first steps!

The delivery truck hauling off our old fridge and stove - it felt good to see it go... even though they have been good to us!

Here is the old stove - and please ignore the wallpaper - there is no excuse for it and it will soon be gone :)

The old fridge

Random pic of Sophie - precious thing - she was terrified while they were hauling everything away lots of noises!


Hello New Fridge!!!! Let the love affair begin.......

New Stove - hello lover.....

My Hard Working Man connecting all the wires on the new stove...

The dishwasher will be installed after our kitchen remodel - pics to follow!

Outside News:

Our little crepe myrtle growing and blooming! Love that pretty pink! We have another one next to it that is starting to bloom what I think is purple.

So, everyone in LR probably knows we finally got a DSW shoes which I have yet to go to. I am ashamed - I know, but I finally got the time on Friday and oh my - it was beautiful! I have been to DSW before in Texas, but to have one of our very own in Arkansas - well, its a little slice of heaven on earth. ;)


I spent about 2 1/2 hours inside - gliding from aisle to aisle, trying on cute shoe after cute shoe - finally deciding on what to buy and made my way to the checkout counter.

When I got home I tried them all on, yes again, and modeled them for Soph and Trey. Between me and you, they were definitely not as excited as I was! haha

here is Sophie trying to sniff out the pic of all my pretty new shoes

Here they are! My new besties!

Since we are talking about shoes - I will share a fun little poem I wrote when I was in College in my writing class:

"Extensions of Me"

Hot pink Manolos, bright orange Jimmy Choo's,

My heart palpitates with one look at these shoes!

Sensuous curves, black leather dreams,

"I want the pink, yellow, and orange!" I scream

As I try each pair on, I feel giddy in my tummy

The price tag reads $500, is that too much money?

Oh I need this 7 inch stiletto heel

I wonder if they have it in red, purple, and teal?

They do? How perfect! I think I'll take three!

When shopping, girls knows its best to go with me!

I glide to the counter, ten boxes in hand

I peek to the right at another shoe stand...

Thank you for all your kind help Lisa,

I take our my Louis Vuitton wallet, and hand her my Visa.

Well - that is all the exciting news I have for now... my best friend Somerset is coming into town tonight for interviews tomorrow and Tuesday - we are all crossing fingers and saying prayers that she will get a great offer to move back!!! :) I will definitely keep you posted!

Have a fabulous start to your week!

Baby Showers!

Welcome Blog Friends!

Kelly's Korner http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ is featuring Baby Showers this week and I have helped throw several showers, but more recently I co-hosted a shower for my dear friend Amber about 2 years ago. (Okay, that is not real recent - but hey, it counts!) When I found out that Amber was pregnant I was so stinkin excited! We emailed or talked almost daily throughout her pregnancy - it was so much fun that I got to share that experience with her. When we found out she was having a baby girl - well - squeals and shrieks were heard from the neighborhood, I assure you! :)

Her best friend April, and a few of her other close friends, and I helped throw her a baby shower before Miss Aubrey was born...

I love diaper cakes - I ordered this cake online from a great website, they did a fantastic job! Plus there were goodies stashed inside....

A bucket of baby wishes and prayers....

A special project April thought of was decorating these cute onesies for Aubrey - they turned out so cute and such a creative idea.

I actually never got a pic of the Mom To Be and I during the shower - (what was I thinking!?) But here we are when we went to visit them in Dallas right before Aubrey was born...

And here she is! Miss Aubrey - of course much older - but still so darn cute. Oh, and Auntie Melanie helped to put together this play contraption - I totally forget the name, but I was proud of myself! haha

Aubrey trying cereal for the first time!

Weddings and Babies - some of life's greatest reasons to celebrate and shower with gifts and love!

Lots To Be Excited About!!!

I am thrilled to announce that I saw a brand new trailer for NEW MOON!!!!! Oh am I sooooo excited for this movie to come out! The new trailers are amazing and I know this movie will be fantastic! You can view a trailer at www.newmoonmovie.org

November CANNOT get her soon enough! :)

A little eye candy for you.....

The Love Triangle......

Also, Taylor Swift is coming to concert in Little Rock September 26th and I am too excited! I absolutely LOVE Taylor (I know I know, I am not a fan of country music at all, but there is something special about this girl!) She is so young and has written almost all of her own music - not to mention she has an amazing voice and I am in love with every song on her new CD! Cathleen got us tickets and I am pumped to hear her perform live!

Other news going on - my cousin Brian and his wife Amy just had a precious baby girl last week - Caroline Rose (gorgeous name!) and they are healthy and doing well! My cousin Ashley found out she is having a baby boy for her third child and my other cousin Amber is pregnant with her second! Babies Everywhere!

I am so excited for all of them and please pray everyone has a smooth pregnancy and for happy, healthy new additions to our family!

Have a fabulous rest of the week!

Projects and Purchases!

Things are a changing! At work, we just received new laptops (Welcome to the modern world Doubletree!) and of course I asked if I could have a hot pink laptop and as soon as I opened my mouth I realized that would definitely not be an option - the GM gave me a look (yeah, one of THOSE looks ...) and I smiled and said black was still a great color!

So, of course as soon as I got the laptop I knew I had to doll it up a bit and get a super cute laptop bag! Hey, If I can't have a pink laptop, I can certainly have a pink bag :) So, I found a great deal on a Juicy Couture case - and I am IN LOVE!!

My boring ole black laptop...


Let me introduce you to my sassy pink Juicy bag!!!

I absolutely adore it! So, we have been pulling all of our files and contracts onto the laptops and the main point of all this is because we are also getting a new system! Delphi (heaven for hotels) is an amazing system that is supposed to be user friendly and fabulous for contracts, proposals, and booking conventions/events, etc. We are thrilled to get it - and we will have training over the next two months. Wish me luck!

Next up, we are finally going to remodel our kitchen... and two bathroom floors. We are so excited and we finally narrowed it down and picked out the tiles/counter tops! Don't worry - I will post pics during the process...

Black slate for the kitchen floor... kind of a fuzzy pic

The back splash for the kitchen with the bronzed squares as an accent decoration...

The granite tile for our counter tops...

We are planning to start in early October to be completed by November. We have hired a highly recommended guy to do the job and we are ready to go! ;)

As Fall approaches it makes me think of Halloween which is my first holiday that get to I decorate for to begin the season - I love love love Halloween and I am starting to collect the Department 56 Halloween Village sets - (I have collected the Christmas sets for years!) But I have found some great deals on eBay and through other websites. I can't wait to put it all together in the fall and here is an example below of what mine will HOPEFULLY look like someday - of course I am just starting my collection, so I won't have nearly as much as this neat display..... but someday....... :)



More to come tomorrow - our weekend project is painting our shutters! I will post pics later!

AFTER THE BRIDE AND GROOM SAY I DO....

Welcome Blog Friends! This is Kelly's last installment of Weddings: "Show Us Your Wedding Reception and Honeymoon!"



I loved loved loved my reception and the best time seeing all my family and friends! We had some good food, yummy drinks, and fabulous music to dance to!



Trey and I dancing to our first song "LOVE" by Nat King Cole





Our YUMMY wedding cake! I didn't get a digital pic, but for Trey's grooms cake we had Pies since he is not a big fan of cake - it was a big hit :)




My cake topper was unique and very personalized - the groom has a confused expression on his face and in place of a Bride is a sign that says "Still Shopping"! For everyone that knows us - this couldn't be more hilarious and oh so true :)

One of the small cocktail tables decorated - I loved the way the pink turned out with the chocolate and blue.

We went to Antigua on our honeymoon to a Sandals resort. It was beautiful - but we actually had an awful time! Everything that could go wrong did - and they were under construction the entire time not to mention our luggage was lost for 3 days! Anyway, no worries, they paid for us to have a free week's stay and we went back the following February for a fantastic getaway!

I miss the whole wedding experience and process - it was a lot of work and stress, but I loved almost every minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat! Same groom of course! ;)

Come Rain or Come Shine...

First things first - look at this sweet face! Sophie has been so different the past few weeks - dare I say... grown up? She is definitely more mature and has been like a new dog. Bella and her get along pretty well and she is more calm and has not torn up a pee pad in forever - YEA!!!


We went to my parent's lakehouse this weekend which is in Greers Ferry, Arkansas. My parents have been working on their house up there for years and it is the neatest house. I will post pics later onto this same post of the cool decor.

The plan was to rent a pontoon boat on Saturday for 8 hours, but it rained all day. Yuck! We didn't lose money, but we pretty much sat in the house and talked for the entire 8 hours we would have been on the boat. We did have fun and it was relaxing which was nice, but we were bummed that the rain didn't let up all day...

Irene and I acting a fool with a can of beans. (okay, really just me acting a fool - haha)



The yummy mexican food we made for Friday night - it was delish!


Nicole came down from New York and got to spend Friday night with us. I haven't seen her in a while so it was nice to catch up :) It is her birthday on Monday, so Lauren got her a cake which was beautiful and soooo good! Happy 27th Nicole!!

How pretty is this cake? I mean, pink and chocolate - what could be more perfect?

Trey and I after dinner on Saturday at Jansen's Restaurant.

Lauren and I

Irene, Lauren, and I

Irene and I

We did have a wonderful weekend with dear friends - we played games and laughed until our abs got a workout. We had some great in depth conversations and many discussions about babies and children since we are all getting close to that age - it is just a matter of time! We are at a fun age of discovery, realizing that adulthood is NOT all that it is cracked up to be (did we expect it would be?) and babies on the brain. We are enjoying life and getting as much as we can done before all of our energy is focused on a little human being. And what a wonderful miracle that will be when that times comes?

Life is grand - rain or shine! :)