Summertime Wedding

This past weekend we attended the Sheley nuptials.




I love going to different weddings... seeing the individual personalities of the bride (and groom?) come alive through their decoration choices. Choices like this:



Mason jars. I, myself, am a huge fan of using mason jars for different events so my bias may be getting in the way. :) But, I loved them! They were used as vases at the reception as well as glasses to serve the water and sweet tea. Plus, they were party favors in the sense that you were able to keep your drink jar!

This year has been filled with weddings for us and most of them have been "my" friends. That is sort of an inaccurate statement, I suppose, because after being together for (almost) 8 years I don't think David and I truly have friends that are 100% his or 100% mine.... but you know what I mean. I think. Do you? I hope so. Oh well. Moving on. The great thing for David is that this wedding was for "his" friend Mike and therefore he was able to see a few high school buddies. This is Mike:



This is Mike at the rehearsal dinner wearing what can only be described as the best.shirt.ever. Also? If you are wondering, he cut the sleeves off because it looks awesome.

(If you don't catch that reference then you obviously don't have a husband that forces you to spend three-quarters of your life watching football or football related material and therefore you are not bombarded with football related commercials. P.S. If you can't tell, I'm super excited that the season of molding our lives around what games are going to be on TV is here. Please send help.)



Back to the non-complainy story!

As I was saying, it's great for David to spend time with friends. I know he has a great time. It is so great to see him having such a great time. Great!




The blonde one? I have quite a few pictures of him from the weekend. And would he smile for me? No. Would he typically give me weird, creepy stares just to ruin the picture? Yes. So, I only have a very select few that are somewhat decent. He must be getting me back for that time I took pictures of him throwing up in the surrounding water after a particularly rambunctious tubing session one afternoon out on Lake Norman.

HA! (It's a good thing he doesn't know this blog exists...)



More wedding photos to come!!

Miss Bailey

We have had an extraordinarily busy summer thus far. In addition to the daily chores of life, work, tending to the critters, etc etc etc, we have found ourselves out-of-town for several reasons (unfortunately no vacations...). We have had a summer of weddings (I believe the count is at six) which have taken us all over. I love weddings because it is so great to see old friends!! We have also had a few other reasons to spend time away from home. Recently we went to Whiteville, NC (the home of many of David's family members) for him to conduct some bidness.



While there, I tried my best to stay out of the way :)
Miss Bailey is a cousin of our pups. She and I played quite a bit and then I decided to whip out my camera.



It seemed appropriate for me to do so since I had not taken it to any weddings.... and therefore I have NO pictures of said weddings... but that is for another time. Anyway, Bailey was Miss Happy-Go-Lucky until.... I took out my camera. Something about a giant conglomeration of black plastic that had her spooked. She wanted nothing to do with it.



So, I was only able to snap a few photos... and they aren't very fabulous! But oh well! She is super cute, isn't she?



Just like me to have more pictures of dogs than people. :)

Big (and Old) News

Okay, okay... In my last post I joked about hoping to post again before the 4th of July. Well, it is...August. The 10th of August, in fact. And I'm just now posting again.

The truth of the matter is that I really did seriously intend on posting with more frequency but my computer did not agree. My former laptop met an untimely death and I have been without a functioning computer for a seriously long time. Tragic.

If I hadn't been living in the dark ages I would have shared this news on here much earlier but, as everyone now knows, David and I are having a baby boy at the end of December. Since everyone knows that, I will share the oh-so-clever (or not) way that I told the father-to-be! If you can search back through your memory bank to a land far, far, away and a time long, long ago (well, it will be 3 years in a couple of weeks) you will remember our wedding. On our Save the Date cards, napkins, drinkware, etc we had a monogram of a B and a D overlapping (like the one in the above photo). I took the monogram and had it printed on an itsy bitsy onesie with the word "Creations" below (because I am super creative and all).

Aaaaand...



Voila! I wrapped it and waited for David to return home from work. We were leaving that day for a wedding in Washington, DC and I knew David would be very anxious to get on the road but I didn't want the anxiety of holding on to that secret! So, when he returned home I was waiting for him on our front porch. Earlier in the day I had purchased a few new polo shirts for him so I gave him those and put the box at the bottom. I was so unbelievably nervous... But, he was very cute and very excited!! Then I told him we couldn't tell anyone for a couple of months. Have you met David? Do you know how hard it is for him to be quiet about something?? It is pretty easy for me but I assume it is the worst kind of torture for him...



I actually made onesies in order to break the news to several of our family members. We wrapped them and had the expecting grandparents and great grandparents open the gifts under the guise of Mother's and Father's Day presents. Each time I thought I would have to be hospitalized due to my heart beating so fervently that I was sure it was going to explode.



But, I made it... barely. We found out in June that Baby M is going to be a boy. David is definitely excited about that! If nothing else, it means his world won't be inundated with pink, glitter, and princesses for the next decade or so!
Instead my life will probably have more football, dirt, and bugs!



Ready or not, December, here we come!!

Easter 2010

Someone messed up the calendar. They are showing that is is mid-April but I'm pretty sure that's not the case because I haven't updated anything on here since the beginning of February. Obviously they are in error. You just can't get good help these days...

Life has actually been extraordinarily busy. Spring has sprung- the grass is growing- trees are blooming- flowers are blossoming. It is most definitely my FAVORITE time of year! Easter was quiet and uneventful this year. We spent the day with friends and family and I annoyed my brother and his three chillins by snapping a few photos of them before our annual Easter dinner. I also snagged some pretty random shots from around the ol' family homestead... I'm pretty good at always taking some photos of inanimate objects. It's a gift, I guess :)

This is our family dog, Mackenzie. She is going on 15 years old but she is still happy and energetic and, of course, precious! Also, smart as a whip!

What does that saying even mean?? Moving on...

Some people (read:DM) were less than thrilled to have their picture taken. I have approximately 783,329 of photos with this same (or worse) expression located in folder after folder on my computer... I think deep down he really loves it.

My very cute nephew, Harrison. Seriously, can you get any cuter?

Another nephew, Stratton. Encouraging him to stand still so that I may take a photo is quite an accomplishment. Just another reason I am awesome!

My brother, Jonathan, with his daughter, Charlotte. I think this might be my favorite of the day!

Miss Charlotte.

Family photo! A good looking bunch, don't you think??

Here's hoping I'll post again before the 4th of July!!!!! Fingers crossed!!

February Already??

"Hey, Baxter!! Can you believe it is already February??"

"Huh? Oh, umm, no."



"But can I ask you one thing?"


"Sure! What?!"

"Would you get off of me??"

Escape

When I was a little girl, my mom used to recite a poem to me- insinuating that I was the girl for whom the poem was written. It went like this:

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good
She was very, very good
But when she was bad
She was horrid.

Well, if you would now please swap our "girl" with "dog" and "she" with "he" then you will understand my current sentiments on our dog Kohana.

This weekend was a quite rough. First of all, we moved all of our furniture, etc. from our old house to the new one. And, honestly, moving is terrible. I don't like it one bit. Saturday was a terrible day (which I will explain at a later date) but we had a moving truck and we had to get it done. Sunday we had more miscellaneous things to transfer over. It was a long day. By Sunday evening we were exhausted. At 6:00 I was so ready for bed I could hardly see straight.

In addition, we were hit with torrential rains. Flood worthy rain that our county is still dealing with flooding 2 days later... It was serious.

So, in the midst of all of this, our wonderful husky Kohana decided that it was time for him to play a little game he likes to call "escape." And that he did.

Side note: On a regular day, I suspect I do a dog head count approximately one billion times. You see, I am a paranoid freak. I am constantly checking on them and making sure that everyone is present and accounted for. And on the occasion when something isn't right, I usually know about it quickly.

But, as I mentioned, we were moving. Because of this I'm not sure how long he was gone though I don't think it was more than 10 minutes. And off we went. DM took the car, I stayed on foot. But the rain! The rain was terrible!! First of all, I don't think he could hear me calling for him as he would have been able to under normal circumstances. Secondly, I couldn't hear the jingle of his collar in case he was near me. It was pitch black. We don't have street lights and we have woods all around. Visibility was extraordinarily limited. We searched and searched and searched. Typically I am an optimist and under control in situations like these. This night, however, I was extremely worried. I thought the weather conditions might ruin any chances we had of finding him. But, someone was looking out for us because DM did find him and although Mr. Mischievous Kohana did try his best to elude him he was temporarily distracted by another dog and we were able to get him home.

So, this ending is a happy one. We have our precious pup home and my car smells like dirty, stinky, wet dog and has muddy footprints all over it. Well, at least one of those things is good. :)

A few weeks in the life...

We have been super busy around here! Let me give a super quick summary.

Weather very very very cold. As in, coldest it has been in 20 years. Water troughs freeze. Must use axe to break up the ice. Feel like manly lumberjack in a woman's body.
Water line to the horse's trough breaks. Must carry water from the house to the horses one 5 gallon bucket at a time. Feel like very sad and sore lumberjack in a woman's body.

Snow on the ground increases the amount of hay we have to feed the horses. Hay supplies dwindle. Must replenish.

Dogs have to spend much more time inside due to the weather. Dog hair army rises up and tries to take control. Vacuum cries. Dogs decide that carpets are meant to be the color of red mud and try their best to cover all carpeted surfaces with as many dog prints as possible. Carpet cleaning man celebrates at the continued business we give him. I decide that putting in hardwoods on said carpeted surfaces may have to happen sooner rather than later.

Weather warms. I sing from the rooftops!!

Our old house is under contract meaning that we can finally move our furniture!! YAY! But that means moving the masses of boxes we have neglected so that furniture may move to its new home. BOO!

Baxter decides that he would like to sleep all day (which is not a change for him at all) but would like to stay awake at night. Thinks we should do this as well. Barks incessantly during the night to ensure we abide by his schedule. I argue with him that I need a good solid 9 hours of sleep a night. He disagrees. He wins. We do not sleep through night for weeks. I cry.

In my personal boycott of life due to the cold weather I neglect the laundry. It continues to grow. As it turns out, neglecting it will not persuade laundry pile to stop growing. I almost drown in laundry and then scold myself for letting it get so bad.


That is the most concise summary I can do... Sure, I left out a bajillion things but who cares?! Till next time!