Normal Hours... Finally :)

Today I am so excited! K worked today from 8-5pm so that means he is nearly HOME!!! yippee yay yay!! We finally get to have dinner together and some QT before midnight! I am happy! Tonight its Fajitas! I guess thats all for now :)

Oh and keep prayin for my job- got an email today from one company!! sweet!

I'm on a YACHT!

Happy Early Birthday Hil!

Sunday the hubby and I enjoyed a day off together- and luckily it was Hil's early bday party too... on a YACHT!! We had such a blast and feel so blessed to have you as a friend :) We hung out on the boat all day at "party cove" on Lake Lewisville, and grilled some hot dogs (on the boat!!) and listened to music and just hung out. They had a HUGE float (that could hold about 6-8 people on it and we tied it to the back of the boat while we were anchored and just chilled. The water was really chilly, I guess from all of the rain we have gotten lately, but it felt nice to cool off. After the adventures on the lake we headed back home for a quick bite to eat and to get ready for church.

This weekend was baptism weekend- my favorite weekend every time it happens! I really thoroughly enjoy hearing how God has saved so many people in different ways! AMEN! :)

Can you believe this!?

So after cooking me dinner and completely serving me all day on his one and only day off, my husband returns home from work with these for me....

aren't they the most beautiful thing?! I asked him why he was giving me flowers and he responded, "Just because I love you"... makes my heart melt! I was completely surprised and blown away, I felt overwhelmed with love. God has truly blessed me with an amazing man :)

I <3>

such a TREAT!

Check this out, I have a very very sweet husband who decided to treat me last night by cooking me a delicious dinner and a very tasty dessert! We had brisket that was cooked slowly while marinated with a bottle of liquid smoke. The smell was irresistible and I was on the edge of my seat all night to get a bite, so much so that I would have rather been outside. The smell however was NOT deceiving! He also cooked a wonderful bean medley and fixed his moms "Good dessert" which is to-die-for!

Yes, I have the fun halloween placemats thanks to my sweet aunt who makes sure I have plenty of decorations for the "holidays" - I absolutely love them all! :) So cute!

Anyways, we had such an enjoyable dinner last night and a good day together. Finally one day off for him!

Yesterday k and I just relaxed... yest. afternoon I picked up my neighbors kids from the bus stop because they have a 4 month old baby who had open heart surgery today. K and the boys played soccer for a long time and had a blast. I also took the kids to school today and picked them up again. I feel like I have been "playing mom" and I'm not going to lie, I love it!! :) As far as I have heard their baby is doing good and the surgery went well. He had a hole in his heart from something genetic but when they went in for surgery found 2 - they fixed both of them and he will be in neonatal ICU until probably wednesday. Please pray for baby J.

Still no word on my job. I am continually being tested. Deuteronomy (which by the way is a very difficult word to spell haha) says that "The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul." Pray for patience for me, and TRUST in the Lords will for my life. It is sometimes very frustrating and easy for me to get upset feeling bad for myself or getting caught up wondering why it is that I can not find a job. The devil is quick to creep into my mind to tells me I'm not good enough and that I lack worth. Pray for this to cease and for me to know (and constantly be reminded and to remember) that God's plans for my life are so great and that my worth is not found in a job, but rather in my savior, who loves both you and I very much, Jesus Christ!!!

I must merely "wait on the Lord."

"but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31

The Weekend of Festivals!

Wheph, this weekend really flew by and was definitely fun-FILLED!

Friday night K and I had planned on going to see "Love Happens" but that didn't exactly work out. I had made dinner so that when he got off work we could eat around 8 then go to the movies... Well 8:45pm rolls around and I start to worry. Finally I get ahold of him and find out that he is getting off work late, and later, that his car won't start. I gladly picked him up and we came home and enjoyed a (late) dinner together. He figured we would be car shopping shortly and that this time it was his motor- shot. We attempted (and did a pretty good job I think) to put that on the back burner for the time being in order to enjoy our weekend together, and his ONE day off since... forever. We end up relaxing for the night which was totally enjoyable and then sent him off to work on Saturday. I am so thankful that he has a job, I just selfishly wish he had better hours so that I could see him more. (Prayers for a solution are much appreciated- I do not enjoy him not getting home until 11pm or midnight and neither does he!)

Saturday night when he got home from work the two of us headed out to Oktoberfest (a German-fest) in Addison. There was live German music, dancing and lots of great food. We also happened to run into some of my great IBM friends!

(All the girls!!)

Sunday was great as well. We got up early to meet a friend for church at the 11am but he ended up calling saying he couldn't make it so we decided to head out to Grapevine for Grapefest, a wine festival! We did a little shopping and walking around and even went to a winery. Neither of us are really wine-fanatics but we somehow managed to find two very delightful wines, both made here in Texas. They are both semi-sweet and served chilled for a warm day or after warm food but one is red and the other white. They are of the Homestead Winery in Ivanhoe, TX- the red is "Rose of Ivanhoe" and the white is "Sweet Home Ivanhoe". Believe me- if you like sweet wines you will fall in love with these- esp the red wine. We browsed a few more stands before leaving and found a beautiful wooden cross to hang in our house. I had been looking for something to hang over our fireplace but had not found the right thing and I just knew this was "it". After bringing it home to put up, we learned that it was maybe two inches too tall to fit there. We are now looking for a place to hang it in the house- I will post pictures at some point- it really is a nice work of art. Grapefest was a total hit- we saw lots of neat paintings, arts and crafts, watched a grape smashing contest where people stomped the grapes in barrels, saw a working blacksmith, and much much more. K & I really have come to appreciate any time we have together with him working so much lately. We headed home for a quick bite to eat and shower before going to church at 7pm. Church was fun but almost the MOST empty I have ever seen it. As K said to one of the men helping on the parking crew... "I guess most people love the Cowboys more than God today" ha! He was kidding but hopefully they had just all gone to different services :).

This morning was quite productive as well- esp for the two of us who usually sleep in now due to K's late night shifts. We rose around 9am and got to work. Took my car to get it inspected, Called AAA to have them tow the Jeep, met them at the location and led them to the car shop, came home, applied for more jobs, ate lunch, went to find out what this new construction was behind our neighborhood (hoping it was an early childhood center) and came back home so he could get ready for work.

Ends up the new (now finished) construction is a ... drum roll please... early childhood school!! I immediately got verrry excited because this place is brand new and literally about 500 feet away from the back entrance to our neighborhood. I quickly came home and got on their website and sent in my contact information to apply for a job. I am praying that maybe, just maybe, this is the reason that God has not allowed any of my other job opportunities to work out, so that I can work at this brand new school right by our house! Over the last couple of weeks I have started applying for various jobs- mainly sales, because I am starting to get desperate and that is the field of my professional experience. I still would much rather work with infants or toddlers or kiddos of any age for that matter but as the school year is getting underway I am, rather I have, lost almost all hope of that. This new school was a little flicker of hope in what was a seeming black tunnel. Please be praying for that as well as another job that I feel would be great at ERAC- it is a manager training position. I am also patiently waiting to hear back from another place about a project management job- be praying for all of these opportunities and that God would open the door best fitted for his plan in my life and that in the mean time he would fill my heart with peace, patience and security that He WILL PROVIDE! I have started having bad dreams about not having a job and have not really been getting any good sleep. Please pray for that also.

One HUGE answer to prayer this week (sorry I didn't mention it earlier when I was blogging about it) is that the Jeep was only a minor ($200 fix) rather than a $2,000 dollar fix that we had planned on- or buying a new car.... God was really watching out for us and we could not be more grateful!

The night is seemingly winding down and I am anxiously awaiting my husbands arrival. I am starting to feel a little sick so lets hope that its not going to be serious and that I can get over it quick!

<3>

Fall and Oktoberfest!

yesterday was such a nice day! the weather here has been rather dreary but I must admit that I have kind-of enjoyed it! The cloud cover has kept the temperature around 75 degrees when usually it is still in the 90's. This weather has reminded me that fall is quickly approaching and that is something I am very excited about! It makes everything in me want to go shopping for cute fall things to decorate the house with and to change all of my flowers out for "fall colors" (this is not something I plan on doing but I like the idea!)

Yesterday, I enjoyed the afternoon with my good friend Lo- I finally got to see her and her husbands new house they bought and boy was it beautiful! She made me a delicious jack and cheddar grilled cheese! YUMMMY!! She also made some apple bread that was soo tasty and again brings me to anticipate fall! Dinner last night was free chick-fil-a sandwiches but man was it a madhouse in there! I think it took me literally 20 minutes to get a free sandwich... something worth the wait! ha

This weekend is Oktoberfest in Addison! Last year I went with my family and we had a WONDERFUFL time!! I will miss them this year but I'm sure it will still be loads of fun!

(My sisters and I at Oktoberfest last year... FUN!)

Stay tuned, more to come later!

Lots of Catching up and lots of laundry!

I do realize how slack I have been on updating here and my husband has reminded me how I am "letting all of my faithful readers down"- partly joking- partly not, so for that I am sorry!

So... Where to begin. I guess we will start with Friday night. K & I flew into NC Friday afternoon and his parents were so kind to pick us up. We grabbed chick-fil-a for lunch and headed to grandaddys house. We were there this past weekend to celebrate his 80th birthday. We got ready at his house and headed right down the street to the Country Club where we were greeted with lots of our extended family as well as some of his childhood friends. The night was spectacular and really was a tribute to his life. There was laughing and crying and singing... we did it all! Grandaddy later that night jokingly said to send what everyone had said to the funeral home for his eulogy hah! He also said "I have won all kinds of awards in my life, I've been man of the year and all that sh** but this tops them all. This is by far the BEST day of my life!" I hope one day to be like him. We wrapped up at the club and took it back to his house and just relaxed then headed to my house and my mom, brother, my husband and I all hung out.

Saturday we tried to sleep in but ended up rising around 10am or so. I had to take my ring to the jeweler to get it sized a little - he was closed for the weekend but was so kind to fix it for me anyways and I picked it up on Sunday. K was blown away with how well it looked now that it fit right, and he just loved it... as did I (duh)! ha! We then headed of to K's parents house where we met them, and his sister (and her boyfriend), his brother (and his wife and 3 kids) and we grilled out and hung out. It was fun spending time with them and enjoying the nice cool weather there. Saturday night we went to Montereys for dinner with my family and his parents. Boy were they glad to see us! This summer we had made a habit of going there a couple of times a week and I think they had missed us! We had a nice dinner and then called it a night because we were exhausted!

Sunday... the infamous 25!!!! EEK! Sunday morning K got up waay early (about 6am) to go have breakfast with one of his buddies... it was way too early for me so I stayed in bed. When I woke up around 8:30am I noticed a card on my nightstand that was addressed to me. I immediately thought it was a card from his friend congratulating us on our marriage and wondered why his name wasn't on it too but opened it anyways. It was a card that said "Happy Birthday to my Wife"... it was an extremely sweet card from my hubby (obviously) and i loved it. I had forgotten that it was my birthday, and not only my birthday but my 25th birthday! This is the first time in forever that I have merely let my birthday come and go as "nothing." I'm not sure what the reason for this is but usually EVERYone (and their mom) knows exactly when my birthday is because I start counting down months in advance. I didn't do that this year. I didn't even count down one month in advance or even a week. In fact I don't think it even occurred to me that I was having a birthday until about 3 days before, and after that I "forgot" again. I'm wondering if the whirlwind of activities surrounding us getting married had me distracted (a good distraction, by the way) or if I really disliked turning 25 so much that I decided to avoid it at all cost. I cant answer that question because I honestly don't know.

Anyways, went to church with my family sunday morning and then back to grandaddys for lunch where K's parents again met us. K's mom had made me a beautiful cake (the same as our delicious wedding cake) and we opened presents and cards, and enjoyed ourselves. I guess there is no avoiding my birthday. Happy quarter of a century to me! Sunday night K and I caught a red-eye home and didn't get back to our house till around 2:30am eek! Luckily he had the day off Monday and we just vegged and enjoyed catching up on sleep!

Tuesay, I dont remember what I did... maybe sleep while he worked? Idk... oh I started some laundry... ya.

Wednesday- yesterday, K had to work early so he could get off early. I finished the laundry during the day, cooked dinner, cleaned up the dining room and the mess from our wedding reception stuff, and did some other chores. Check out how much laundry I did....

It was so funny- when K got off work he came back into our bedroom and was like "oh my gosh what have you done!?"... come to find out he thought I had been cleaning out the closet when really all the mess was our clean laundry that needed to be put away! ha!

Last night we went to the Village Church to Group Connect- the goal was to get plugged in to a home group and that we did! I am really excited and that starts in two weeks! wahoo!

Today, my baby is working and I'm going to hang out with my dear friend. Hopefully it wont be a month before I update again. :)

HAPPY 80TH BDAY GRANDADDY!!!!

Well the time has finally come to make it back to the east coast to celebrate grandaddy's 80th birthday party! let me just say, i hope that i grow up to be something... SOMETHING like him! He is a wonderful WONDERFUL man and he really can throw one HECK of a party!!!!! I love him so very much and I am so happy that I could be back in town with all of my fam and karls this weekend. we are going to have a blast!

gnite to all and to all a gnite! xoxo

Mr. and Mrs.!!

I wish that I could adequately express to all of you how much fun this weekend was. and a 5 day weekend at that- Thursday through Monday full of nothing but pure bliss and fun with my family and HUSBAND! :) We are soooo very blessed to have all of you in our lives. Each one of you are so very special to us. I thank God SO MUCH that He has blessed us with you! Thank you for wanting to be a part of our big day. Wow, I'm amazed by how blessed we are!

I hope that all of you are ready for some pictures because there are some highlights that need to be made from this wonderful weekend!

Started out Thursday around noon K's grandma and mom came in town and the four of us went out to eat before K had to go to work ... you will never guess where we decided to feast... Chick-fil-A!! Niiice ha! K then left from there to go to work and the ladies and I came back to the house where they set up a beautiful table and iced a gorgeous cake for us!! Everything was so beautiful and just made the whole event complete! Here is a picture of the final decorations on the table: (They also had 2 toasting flutes and bottles of wine from Arkansas that were dressed up as bride and groom)

(See the bottles on the left? So cute!)

They soon took off for a relaxing evening at their hotel and shortly after that Sonja, Charlie and Donna flew in from the other side of the country. I met them at BJ's for our "Rehearsal Dinner" ha! Check out that picture:
They then came back to the house for a little while and hung out with me as my last night as a Miss!! KJ finally got off work and got to hang out for a lil bit also, then they headed to their hotel. A few hours later my sister Eliz & her bf, Jay, got here and a couple hours after them Mom, Pat, my baby sis, and my grandma! We had people coming in all night- it was so much fun! Mom, Pat & my baby sis Aud got my room, Cissie (my gma) got a guest room, Bubs (Elizabeth) and I shared a room and the men K & Jay got the living room. We had a full house and I got used to that this weekend, it really was a BLAST!!

Friday morning I woke up kinda early even thought I didn't want to really but that's okay, I got to talk to one of my best friends that morning :). Eliz and I went and got pedi's while KJ was with his fam, Jay and Pat were running errands for us, getting drinks and such lined up for the "reception" and doing random things I needed- man they were great! Mom and Cissie and Audrey prepared my house and Donna & Sonja ran errands (that I didn't know they were doing at the time- sneaky little things!) and fixed me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers! and a garter as well as my "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a penny for my shoe!" I was so glad they did all of that! It made the pics gorgeous!

Finally around 3:40pm we all headed up to the courthouse and was met by my great friend Janna who took lots of AMAZING pictures and even video taped the ceremony for us! (Such a God-send!) K and I handed over our marriage license to the judge and made a slight change of plans- we had planned on getting married outside on the lawn by the courthouse but ended up doing it in the courtroom because the judge suggested that outdoors may have been too noisy. The ceremony was beautiful and went on without any complications and he finally got to kiss his bride!

We then took some pictures outside the courthouse and then took the party to Green House in Denton for a nice dinner! We enjoyed the fellowship of each other!

When our tummies were filled we moved the party back to our house for the reception. We got to cut our cake, drink champagne and open some cards and gifts from our family and friends and even tossed the garter and bouquet! It was such a joyous occasion!!

Some little sneakers got my car out of the garage and totally mutilated it :) I loooved it!

K & I made our quick escape in this mess and took off to our hiding place for the night! We stayed in a really nice hotel in Plano, TX called NYLO Hotel.

Saturday morning we took it easy, hung out at the hotel, had breakfast there, and met everyone for lunch around 2pm at Denton County Burger off the square- I hiiiighly recommend it to everyone! It is a great burger! We hung out and some of the family started to trickle away. Those that stayed around came back to my house and my cousins who came in Friday afternoon went with my dad and bought me 2 trees and all the men planted them in our backyard! That was part of their wedding gift to me! They look wonderful and really dress up the backyard!

(By the way, I think the Poop Seed trees are dead... but I dont wanna talk about it :( ha!)

While the men were planing the trees the women went shopping- Cissie bought me some new patio furniture! For dinner we ordered Chick-fil-A party trays and vegged watching movies and playing games and cards. I think everyone had a great time, I know that I did. As the night got moved along K and I took our escape again and spent the night out.

Sunday morning everyone that was around went to church together at The Village where K and I go to church and where I have been going for 2 years. We went as a group to McAllisters for lunch and then took a ride down the road for some Yogurtland! WAHOO!!! It was soooo good! ha! I had to send off my clan from the east coast so they could catch their flight and the rest of us went back to our house. K & Pat put the patio furniture together- It is reallly nice- a table and 6 chairs! They did a wonderful job! Pics to come soon, I do not think I took a picture of that yet.

Monday was a very chill day, laying around enjoying the company of the last little bit of family that was still around. They left later in the afternoon and I was swept by a great sadness when we no longer had a "full house." K was so good to me and cheered me up and we went and got our free Chick-fil-A sandwiches for Labor Day. (I think so far I have eaten CFA 3 times in this blog post so far, and I'm not done yet.) ha! We came home and started tackling some Thank You cards. We spent part of the night making our personalized Return Address labels that now have my new last name on there. WOW! Its so crazy to see that in print! :) I love it though!

So today, for most, was back to the grind. K had to go to work, all the family was gone, and here I am left with an empty house. I am so blessed to have an amazing friend who came over for the day and we caught up on the events of the weekend and life. I <3>

So here I am still trying to take in all of the events of this weekend! As K and I were sitting around after everyone left yesterday I was blown away by how LOVED and BLESSED I felt this weekend. We talked about how much everyone contributed to us and how incredibly blessed we are to have people like YOU in our lives. Seriously, it brought tears to my eyes just thinking of all the little things that you all did to make our day special. And the fact that EVERY single person that came had to travel LONG and FAR distances! It means so much to us that you all would want to be a part of our big day/ weekend! I can not tell you how much we appreciate all the prayers that you all constantly lay over us. I am overcome with joy, pure joy, it is the best feeling in the world. I hope you all know how much WE LOVE YOU!

I'm MARRIED!

yup!! thats all for now :) much more later!! I am so very happy to be a wife to an amazing man I now have the privilege to call my husband :)

The "Poop Seed Tree" (PST)

I just had a revelation... ready for this...?! here goes...

-3 (OMGOODNESS THREE!?!) days till my marriage with my amazing man!!!

-2 (WHHAT two!?) days till all of my family will be in town!! (yay)

-12 days until im TWENTY FIVE!!! NOOOO!!!! a quarter of a century!?!? where has time gone?!

-11 days until my grandaddy's 80th birthday party! Ahoy Mate-y Charles is 80! :) and both K and I get to hang out with our families :)

What a hand full of events to be looking forward to!! I am so very blessed!!

So today was a fun play day... well not really playing but yea. K and I decided to begin to tackle the flower beds and to say the least... well... we barely got started. we ripped up some of the old flowers that were just not looking good and behind them were some "trees" that had sprouted from what we think might have been "seeds" that birds "pooped" into the flower bed. So naturally we decided to name this tree the "poop seed tree" and have been calling it that for a couple weeks now, every time we see one somewhere else I always point it out and call it by name ha! (yes, you dont have to tell me, i have problems lol) . Anyways, we pulled those 5 trees out of the flower bed and planted three of them. Now mind you. We live where the dirt is NOT dirt. It is more like HARD HARD CLAY! This made for a not so easy time digging holes in the yard to plant these babies. Also, because I'm not very smart, I didnt think to buy a shovel so here are K and I in the yard whacking at the ground with the back side of a hammer ha! I wish that someone could have seen this haha! we managed to dig 3 holes this way until we had both had ENOUGH! ha. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasures of our most recent additions to our yard, our "PST's" as we have abbreviated them now ha! :) Enjoy!

*** side note, my baby K wanted to just TRASH these "trees" but I just HAD TO plant them and see if they would survive hahaha! :-D

Karl with the Original "PST" with the "PST2" in the background.

Me watering the PST2 aka BabyPST

I'm hoping this thing actually grows and doesn't die

"Shoveling" with the back of the hammer hahahah!

I'm so glad my fiance is a boy scout and is so handy with everything- coming up with new ways to do things when his silly fiancee (me) doesn't remember you need a shovel to plant a tree. ha!

Tomorrow night is my "Bachelorette Party" with all the girls! We are going to my favorite place for dinner annnnd... Mojitos!! my favorite drink! I am so excited to have a fun girls night with all my loves :) yaaay!!! yippee!

Well I will write more later... but wow, I can not express to you how much excitement fills my heart that this special day is so quickly approaching! Sorry about the corny post last night haha but writing our wedding had to be one of the most special things I have ever done and left me felling even more blessed than ever before and I just pray for a hundred wonderful years with this amazing man God has provided for me!

no cup of tea, more like a cup of milk...

Today I got to spend some time with my fiance and then he had to leave for work :(. Good news is I got to hang out with my dear friend Lori!! We had a blast running errands and shopping together. We always seem to have so much fun!!! She was patient with me as I finally found some needed items for the big day! oh nine oh four oh nine! :-P

Got to meet with the fiance for dinner on his "lunch" break and we had a wonderful dinner. And finally around 10:15 pm he got off!

(We just finished our ceremony) wheph!!! okay so I had no idea how much time it would really take us to write our wedding ceremony but let me just tell you its not a cup of tea haha more like a cup of... milk? much thicker (weighty) and pours slower (than a cup of tea). haha that may have been a stretch but yes, I went there. Everyone keeps telling me to soak it all in... and let me just tell you, I really am trying but I'm not sure I am the best sponge, I don't know how it works. I am loving every minute of my life but is that enough? Luckily for me I get the JOY and privilege of marrying my amazing man TWICE! ooooh yeaaaa! you heard me right :) I'm lovin it!

I must admit right now I am a bit tired and maybe even a little delirious- which could make for a quirky blog entry tonight, but I refuse to let any of you down another night without writing.

Did I tell you KJ got his ring Saturday!?! ( I really can't remember if I already blogged on this or not ha!) We got up early Saturday morning just to go to the post office to pick it up. I think he likes it... you look at this face when he was opening the package and you and tell me :)

Also, here is a picture of his actual ring--

OH! can I vent for just a minute? So yesterday I go to take K dinner at work and am gone less than an hour and come back to LITERALLY HUNDREDS of ants invading the kitchen!! It was discusting and I was so mad and frustrated that I couldn't even find the bug spray- so remembering what my great friend flash told me- I broke out the windex- almost a fourth of the bottle at that. It killed them alright, but it was a very sloooow process but they continued to crawl all over the walls, counters, and floors until they finally died and that just made me even more mad. I finally found the bug spray and added that to all the windex puddles I had already made, thank God there was no explosion... it sure did fizz a lot -- check out the picture--

DEAD now! suckers! (but my kitchen is a wreck- and the oven is still pulled away from the wall ha!) Also, luckily I managed to escape any bites from these stupid fire ants, thank you God!

So yea, we both have our rings, both have our outfits (well I'm still sorta working on accessor-ising mine ha!), K's mom has graciously volunteered to bake a cake for us. She makes some very pretty, yummy cakes, let me tell you! But yes... everything is coming right along! Luckily KJ is off work for the next few days so we can work together on some fun things... like planting some flowers for our soon to be arriving guests. I think we finally have a great place picked out for dinner as well.

Not much else to report on... except that we are VERY EXCITED that we will get to see our family soon!!! YAY!!