Weeding, Wedding, and Puppies...Oh My!

Last Friday night, I wanted to help Nick with some work. We don't get to see each other a whole lot during the summer months. If it's light outside, my awesome hubby is working hard somewhere. His crews have started working at 6:00am to at least beat a bit of the heat. But Friday, he needed to do some weeding at one of his job sites. I put on my gardening maternity attire and headed out with him. I wish we would have taken a picture. I can't bend over to weed anymore because it hurts my stomach, so I just sat Indian style in the flower beds to do the weeding. I'm sure it was quite the sight to see. :) We got a lot accomplished before the sun fully set, and I got to spend some time with Nick. So it was a good evening.

Saturday morning, Nick & I got up to hit the road for Waco. One of Nick's cousins, Gavin, got married that evening. We dropped our doggies off at the in laws, picked up my mother-in-love, and headed to Waco. We had to make two quick stops in Tyler for the business then we drove the rest of the way. I have been craving fried pickles for a while now. The only problem is, I can't find any where locally that has the kind I'm looking for. I want them to be like Montana's (in Stephenville) pickles... :( I knew George's in Waco had Montana's-type pickles, so I asked if we could eat lunch there. Everyone was game. We ended up having a late lunch, but it was oh so worth it. I barely ate any of my meal because I ate so many pickles, but they sure were yummy!

Fried pickles!

The wedding was beautiful and oddly reminiscent of our wedding. Gavin wasn't able to attend our wedding due to his senior trip being scheduled at the same time, so it was crazy how similar our weddings ended up being. He and his bride, Lindzie, both went to Abilene Christian University. Their school color was purple, as is Tarleton's. So, their wedding color was purple, just like our's. Lindzie played music from the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack before the wedding began, just like our's. The reception was what was most similar. My awesome Dad and Sister worked on making what was in my head come to fruition for our reception. We had our reception in the fellowship hall at my home church, and I didn't want to turn on the overhead lights to show off the cinderblock walls. I wanted a "tent" type thing going on. We took a hula-hoop, alternated gossamer, tulle, and Christmas lights. Dad then hung the hula-hoop from the center of the room, then draped out the fabric/lights and attached them at separate points to the ceiling. So it gave a tent like look to the room. Gavin & Lindzie had the exact same vibe going for their reception! I thought they had EXCEPTIONAL taste. :) Nick & I danced a few dances, and we enjoyed getting to visit with his family.  Funny side story: Jason, Nick’s cousin, had fun throwing candy at me from across the table saying, “I’m feeding the pregnant lady.”  I wasn’t complaining. :)

Our wedding on the left, and Gavin & Lindzie's wedding on the right.
I don't have a good photo of our's finished, but that's Dad putting it up.  It looked similar to their's though. :)

Groom dancing with his Momma.

Husband and I.

Coffee family...love them!

Melanie and her two sisters.

Alan & Tovah.

We spent the night at a hotel in Waco with Nick's mom, and then headed over to Nick's Memaw's house for more visiting with family. While we were there, Nick's cousins, Jennifer, Jason, and their kids showed up along with Nick's Aunt Rhon. We ended up all eating lunch together and visiting for a few hours. I really enjoy getting to see all of them. We go a long time between visits, so when we do see each other, we have a blast catching up. Nick's Memaw had everyone look through her husband's old "dog house" workshop in the back yard to see if there was anything in there any of us would want. We were all in there, and I noticed a couple of mounted antlers. I said more liked screamed, "Oh, could I have those antlers?!" Everyone busted out laughing. Nick said, "That is the most excited someone has gotten about antlers in this house in years!" I had a legitimate excuse to be excited. I'm planning Brayden's nursery to be hunting/fishing/camping theme, and I had already been looking for some antlers just like this. I was just going to buy some at Canton the next time I was there, but how cool is it that the antlers will be from Brayden's great grandfather?! They, of course, let me have them. I'm going to clean them up a bit, paint the bases, and they will be a great addition to Brayden's room.

These aren't the exact ones we got, but they're similar.  I forgot to take a pic of them and this one is from a Google search. :)

Monday night, Nick had another late night of working. I went with him on his last job of the day. He's doing a “weed and feed” program for the high school baseball fields. This has to be done at a time when there are no kids on the field. So, he does it after the last game of the evening. We didn't get home until after 11:00. I was exhausted today. I did take Satchel with me to let him experience the ball park. He enjoyed getting to chew on discarded sunflower shells and smelling everything. We even walked all around the ball park to stretch our legs. :)

Husband working...

Satchel enjoying the ball park.

Today, my Sister dropped off her puppy, Ranger, for us to puppy-sit for the week while she's gone. He's super spastic, and our dogs are always slightly punch-drunk when he comes over. They've never had that much energy and don't know quite what to do with him. We spent about an hour outside after dinner to let them run off some steam. Satchel, in true yuppie fashion, stayed on the porch most of the time. Ranger literally ran laps around Tex in the yard. They had a blast. Joe & Melanie dropped by the house to give us something, and Ranger cuddled with Melanie for a bit. :) Let's hope the rest of the week goes smoothly!

Family, Wedding, & Father's Day...Oh My!

This weekend was much needed.  And I did so well with actually remembering to take pictures!

As soon as our work days ended on Friday, we headed to New Boston to visit with family.  My aunt, uncle, and cousins were in from Mississippi.  Mom grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, we watched Finding Nemo, Charly and Mady played with Satchel and Ranger, and we all just visited.  Nick & I didn't get home until past midnight, but it was worth it. :)

My Mady Hope.  Love her!

And she's really good at making funny faces with you. :)

Dad kept staring at Satchel while Satch was chewing on his bone.  Satch eventually got up and left.  He couldn't handle someone watching him eat!

This was after 10:00.  We were all getting sleepy.

But we still visited for a while longer.

Saturday, Nick & I got moving around 9:00.  Nick took the pups over to his parents house.  We were headed to Tyler for a wedding, and we decided to stay the night.  We made a little trip out of it, and got a lot of needed shopping in.  We went to Hobby Lobby, and I didn't buy a single thing I went in for, but left with three items.  :)  Isn't that how it always goes in HL?  I wanted to get some items for a patriotic wreath for the front door, but I didn't like any of the deco mesh they had in the store.  Instead of that, we got two floor lamps and a table lamp in the clearance section.  I was pretty proud of these purchases.  I've been looking for a decently priced floor lamp for a corner of the living room for some time, but I didn't love anything that I've found.  I happened to walk past two in the clearance section (marked to $24 down from $120!) and knew it's what I wanted.  After showing them to Nick, he decided he wanted the second for the drafting table in his office.  I also found a PRECIOUS table lamp for $18 that will be going in Brayden's nursery.  I know they'll be used a lot!

The floor lamp for the living room.

The fishing pole lamp for Brayden's nursery.  The pull chain is a fish!

We ate at Olive Garden for lunch.  We got Nick new tennis shoes and work boots at Academy.  We got him some new clothes at Kohl's, then we headed to the hotel to get ready for the wedding that evening.  The bride, Kelly, grew up with Nick.  She always made sure I felt included when we would all go out together.  She is such a sweet person!  This was our first time to meet her new hubby, Ryan.  They were married at the Villa di Felicita, a very pretty wedding venue in Tyler.

Us with the lovely bride and groom

Quick picture before sending off the couple.

Meagan, Greg, and Nick sending off Kelly & Ryan (with the longest sparklers I've ever seen!).

We slept in a little on Sunday, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, then headed out to do a little more damage in the shopping department.  We hit a few stores in the mall, and also experienced Fresh by Brookshire's for the first time.  It was a very neat store!  We ended up getting some watermelon and grapples.  I just had to try the grapples.  Nick is calling it a pregnancy craving, but who can pass up something that is marketed as an apple that tastes like a grape?!  It actually tasted like an apple that had been infused with grape flavored Dimetapp.  I always liked Dimetapp as a child, but Nick did not.  So he said the grapples should have been named either "crapples" (crap + apples) or "gropples" (gross + apples).  They weren't terrible, but I probably wouldn't buy them again.  We also had lunch at Yamato. I had wanted Shogun, but they didn't serve lunch.  Thank goodness we found this gem.  It was yummy!

Last night, we met up with both of our families at Two Senoritas in Mt. Pleasant to celebrate Father's Day.  We had good food and good visiting.  Alan & Tovah had to head back to Longview, but the rest of us visited a bit more by going to get ice cream at Braums.  Yum!  Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Daddy, awesome father-in-love, and my soon to be Daddy husband.  I love you all!

Dad opening his presents.

Hopefully that shirt will bring the Ranger some good luck. :) 

Yay!  Big Bang!

Joe opening his presents.

A quick selfie with the ketchup-covered, lettuce-eating two year old nephew.  Cute! 

What can it be?

Polos...with pockets!

Dad and his girls. :)

We had a great weekend, but it's back to the grindstone now.  We've got World Changers next week, and our Sunday school class needs to get all of the final details worked out for feeding a crew.  Nick & I are also headed to Waco this weekend for his cousin's wedding.  We've hit wedding season!

Memorial Day, Anniversary, and Graduation...Oh My!

Life's been happening the past few weeks.

I taught a group of 2nd graders about financial literacy in May.  This was my second year to teach.  Lots of fun!

We had a great Memorial Day weekend.  We didn't do much on Saturday, which is my kind of day.  Sunday, we had been invited to go out to Lake Cypress by our friends, the Jernigans.  Kristen's parents have a lake house out there, and they were having a get together.  We visited, ate yummy food, and lounged in the lake.  It was such a great day.

We headed down on Memorial Day to NB to eat lots of fried foods!  Mom had a fish fry (plus anything else she could put in the fryer).  Then we spent the afternoon lounging in the backyard visiting and being entertained by the pups.

I felt like it was an episode of Duck Dynasty.  Sister said, "Well, y'all are the Robertsons."  True that.

Mom trying to love on both dogs at the same time.

But both are territorial.

I bought a dresser from a facebook swap shop.  A coworker of mine saw it, knew I was looking for something similar, and called me about it.  It's exactly what I wanted and is going in our bedroom once it has been repainted.  Love it!

I have such a weird dog.  Satchel wanted to come sit with me on the porch swing, BUT he didn't want to touch the grass.  This is a normal occurrence.   This dog literally hates grass.  Yuppie dog.

Our best friends' daughter, Kenlie, had her dance recital.  Kenlie does dance competitions with BCD in Mt. Pleasant.  She's on the "Tiny" team.  We've kept Keyton a time or two during out of town competitions for Casey & Mitchell.  We've never seen Kenlie perform, so we were sure to make it to her final performance of the year on June 1st.  I helped Casey make Kenlie's poster that was hung out in the lobby as everyone entered.  She's already signed up for another year.  GO BCD Tinys!

Keyton and I playing with the camera before it all started. :)

Nick & I celebrated four years of wedded bliss on Thursday, June 6th.  I was surprised to receive the gorgeous flowers!  They smelled sooo good!  Nick & I went to 5D Steakhouse in Avinger for dinner.  I'd never been there before, so we thought we'd give it a go.  It was DELICIOUS, and I'm pretty sure I looked about 7 months pregnant when we walked out of there!  After dinner, we drove around Lake O' the Pines a bit, walked down around the dam, took some fun pictures, and were able to catch the sunset over the lake before heading home.  It was a wonderful evening.  I can't believe we've already been married for four years!  We've done so much with each other in that time including: graduating college, moving half way across the state, bought a home, started a business, got pregnant and miscarried, got pregnant again, and grew closer together the whole way.  I love Nick, and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us over the next year.

This past weekend, I attended my youngest cousin's (on my Dad's side) high school graduation.  Go Michaela!  We're very proud of you!

Saturday, Nick & I made a quick trip to Tyler.  He needed to pick up some items for work, and I tagged along.  He also help me pick out a dress for a wedding we're attending this upcoming weekend.  We ate at BJ's Brewhouse which is always yummy.  Nick worked the rest of the day, I cleaned up the house a bit, and we grilled for dinner.

We are now getting ready for three PACKED weeks.  Father's Day is coming up, two weddings to attend, a family reunion, World Changers is coming to Pittsburg, and every day life in between.  I need a vacation!