Some Kind of Wonderful

My dear friend Amanda got married this weekend. I am happy and kind of sad to announce it's the last wedding of the summer. I happy because I love weekends where Jonathan and I can stay home, but I am bummed because I seem to only see my girlfriends at weddings. Many of my college friends are spread all over the SouthEast and we all seem to have other things that have taken over our time. (Maybe those things are called life.)

I am truly happy with my life, don't get me wrong, but on weekends like this last one I am nostalgic of the days with very little responsibility. At this point my mom will chime in and say, "what do think will happen when you have a child?" I'm not saying I would change anything or stop moving forward, but it's bittersweet to think of the past when I am with my friends. I miss waking up and the only thing I was responsible for was heading to class and remembering people's birthdays. haha!

Today, it's different and in a good way. I think all those years of college jobs, juggling school, extracirricular, friends, and family has prepared me for now. I miss it, but I am also grateful. I am blessed to have made great friends who I can pick up right where time left off. I am blessed to have met my husband in school and to be married to my best friend. (tear) I am thankful for the opportunities I have been given by my parents, because they sacrificed so much to get me to this very moment.

Check out a couple of the photos from the weekend...

So not as long as I thought, because I am late for work. (My coffee and real world calls me back.) I will be home at 5:15 where the real world laundry and dinner awaits me. I think tonight I may get my team mate to do dinner instead ;)

Sorry peeps!

So sorry people! Does the time seem to escape you? I just realized it's been a week since I last posted. I have been thinking of y'all and catching up on reading all my favorite blogs. I think the AADD (adult ADD) is kicking in again and I sometimes log into my computer and think, "what was I doing again?" PLEASE tell me I am not the only one that has done this?

I will be uploading and writing later tonight after I clean my house. Some little rascal (75lb pup named Dax) has made our house disgusting!


How can he go from this...


to this???

He usually does that right after his bath and I have cleaned my house. What a punk!

P.S. Be ready, the next post will be a long one and random as usual ;)

Discoveries

I woke up bright and early this Saturday with a mission. I can never sleep in anymore so I recruited my friend Kristen to get up, grab some coffee, and hit the some stores with me at 7:30 am.

I desperately wanted to go to Old Time Pottery and missed having it right down the road from my old house. I thought they opened at 8am, but was sadly mistaken when they opened at 9 and we had to occupy ourselves for an hour. We drove around for about 40 minutes trying to finds places that opened before nine or ten. The only place that was open and close by was Dollar General and I needed dish soap and a light bulb. Some shopping trip, huh? Sorry Kristen ;)

Have you ever been to Old Time Pottery? That place is the bomb! It is a giant warehouse with home decor, accessories, out door furniture, and items for every room in the house. I am obsessed with that place and it makes me very excited every time I think about going. I think it's my nirvana and I could spend hours trying to figure out what to buy. (All of those things the hubs say we don't need. As if!)


This aisle was stuffed full or fun and interesting wall decor. Kristen and I were discussing how to make inexpensive headboards when we came across these tiles. The gold ones caught my eye and immediately we began discussing how to arrange them on the wall and whether the black and silver ones could be spray painted. They may look tacky in the picture, but were pretty awesome in person.


Right about now is where I am singing, "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. Of course it's all in my head, as not to scare Kristen or other shoppers, but I cannot help myself at this point! The place is just magical and I love white dishes!!! It looks so neat, pretty, and organized. (I can be classified as a closet hoarder now.)

We spent an hour and a half getting ideas and playing the, "if I had a ton of money" game. I spent less than $20 and walked away with a gray, yellow, and white beach bag (turned purse), corn skewers, and plastic spray bottle. I could have spent so much more, but in all seriousness, where would I store it all?


Ladies, eat your hearts out because the bag was only $9.99 and my shopping journey was a success. Please tell me y'all have been here so you know what I am freaking out about. Who would have thought dishes and bright colored towels would make me this excited?

Until next time,

Friendship Friday

I was on my way to work this morning with my hair still wet and my stomach growling. I hadn't had any coffee because after I made my go-cup I realized I was out of Splenda. There was nothing good on the radio (even satellite) and I was getting pretty frustrated in morning traffic. Do you have those mornings when you start saying, "man can't I catch a break?" It's probably a good thing I was in the car by myself, because traces of road rage were beginning to burst through my chest, neck, ears, and then out of my mouth.

After catching every red light I decided to check my voicemail. I had a message from my good friend Elizabeth and it really made my heart lighter. She was at the airport (yesterday) and was writing a speech for a friend's rehearsal dinner. She called me to tell me that nearly two years ago she was writing a speech to give at my wedding. She said she was thinking about Jonathan and I and how much she loved having both of us in her life. She said she was thankful for us.

Elizabeth is one of my closest and most dear friends. We lived together in college for three and a half years. She's one of those great friends you pick up just where you left off. The reason I wanted to share her 30-sec voicemail message with you is because it completely lifted me up this morning. Her sweet words and taking the time to let me know she was thinking of me means so much. My day could have snow-balled into something monstrous, but it amazed me how quickly I was able to smile and be thankful for another day God has given me and for friendship.

Needless to say, I had overreacted because I am better than great right now. My hair is curly right now, I found some splenda at my desk, my co-worker brought in doughnuts, I got to work safely and on time, and I was grateful for another day and privileged to have such wonderful people in my life. Maybe I should have called this "overreaction Friday".

Happy Friday friends!

Urban Laundry

Good morning bloggers! When I went to Wisconsin a few weeks ago we went to visit my mom's brother and his family in Wauwatosa, WI before our departure. It's this cute town outside of Milwaukee where my mom and I took in a little shopping.

My Aunt Suzie and cousin Callie work at the most adorable boutique called Urban Laundry. If I were to ever own my own store it would probably look similar to this...


Notice my dad, cousin, brother, and hubs standing around





The store has a website, but is more informative versus a place to shop. I did buy a cute Free People top and a linen dress on sale. They were practical buys that I could wear to work. I miss the days when everything I picked out would, "look so cute with jeans and heels," to "I wonder how I can pull this off for work." Man, how the times have changed.

Margarita Wednesday

Chips, salsa, plus margaritas equals...


A happy Nelson couple

Hope you enjoyed your cinco de Mayo!

Wisconsin

Hey bloggers! Sorry it's been a little long since my last post. I am officially back from my cousin's wedding in Wisconsin; land of good beer, German food, and cheese. We ate (a ton), visited with family, danced, ate some more, and left with a content heart and great stories.

Most of my parent's families are scattered through the Midwest and there are a lot of people to miss when we said our goodbyes. Did I mention I have a HUGE family?

The bride, my cousin Sarah (back from Afghanistan), is one of my 27 FIRST cousins. You read that right! This is easy to do when my dad is one of nine. I'll be perfectly honest when I tell you I don't know how many second cousins I have nor do I know all of their names. I can basically point at a kid and guess who they belong to. It's a blast, crazy at times, and takes forever when you are trying to say goodbye. Eventually you just have to walk out the door because you aren't going to hug everyone, and sometimes you'll hug the same person twice. Easy to do when everyone is together and we are pushing 70+ (approximately)


We were up at 4am Friday to catch a 6:30 flight. Jonathan and I flew to WI with my parents and youngest brother, John. Needless to say Jonathan's ability to sleep anywhere came in handy when we were at the airport at 5 am.




After checking into our hotel in Janesville, WI we headed out to try some of the local grub. Jonathan was a little too excited about the bratwurst, cheese curds (not cheese sticks, but little balls of cheese), and local pale ale. I am pretty sure it was a heart attack waiting to happen.




This is an image of an excited husband. Milwaukee's Best tall-boy and a cookie I bought with an inch thick-icing cow on it. I wish I had a photo with Jonathan and the black icing all over his teeth. It was hot. ;)


I haven't lived in the Midwest for a while, but Jonathan made sure we took a picture of a farm. (not like we don't have farms in Alabama or anything)


Finally the wedding... Sarah and Brayden are an amazing couple and both are currently serving in the Navy. They went months without seeing one another being that they were deployed at different times. I cannot imagine how hard that was for them.








It was an amazing and very long weekend. (My poor cousin was about to pass out she was so tired.) Jonathan and I left the reception at 10, but from my understanding the party lasted until the wee hours of the morning. I wish I had more pictures of the reception, but we had to show off our awesome dance moves to the fam. Needless to say my aunts LOVED him, especially because he was pulling my different relatives out on the dance floor with him!

The only time Jonathan flinched was at the end of the trip when we told him he had to name each person present. It was like the record stopped playing and he just looked at me. HELP!