Busy Weekend

I can’t believe it is already Wednesday.  It has been a crazy busy weekend and week.  Friday night, we went to the Razorback Baseball game.  First SEC game of the season.  It was a long game because it went into extra innings, but don’t worry we won.  It was a slow game and by the time it was over we were exhausted.  I was so happy to get to sleep that night.

Saturday was busier than Friday.  Michael got us up early and he went golfing while I went shopping with my bestie Megan.  Then we went to the Saturday baseball game.  It was great.  The game went faster than Friday.  We left early from the game to get ready for a St. Patty’s day party Saturday night at our friend’s house.  We went home and watched the Hogs win on TV.  Our friend’s parents throw an annual St. Patty’s Day party and it is always a blast.  They have oysters, other food, and a band.  It is great because lots of our friends are always there.  So it is good times with great friends.  I love seeing everyone and just hanging out.  It was another late night for us, but a fun night.

Sunday was work around the house day.  My parents came up to go to the Sunday Razorback game, that we won.  We are a family that doesn’t like to miss a game.  My Dad brought up the tiller so we could get my vegetable garden ready.  We washed cars and mowed the lawn (yes mowed the lawn in March).  My garden is officially ready.  Now it is pouring down rain and my garden might be is flooded.  I am hoping my seeds aren’t floating away somewhere.  I am so sore from working in the yard all day Sunday.  It might not help that running daily has also become a norm in my routine. 

Here is my garden before the rain.

Here is my garden after the rain.

Today, I tried to run on the treadmill and I made it almost a mile before my back started shooting pain.  I think it is from working in the yard, but not sure.  I am going to get a massage tomorrow to help fix this problem.  I don’t want to go too many days without running.  I am hoping this rain stops soon, so that my garden doesn’t die and I have a doggie who really wants to go outside and play.  Hopefully soon!!!  Sorry for the random posting today has been one of those day!

Best Friend

My best friend reminded me yesterday how long we have been friends.  15 years!!!  This makes me feel so old, but at the same time there are plenty of people out there who have had the same best friend for longer.  Elementary school or before.

Veronica and I met in junior high in the 7th grade.  She had just moved into our school when we met and we were instant besties.  We have been friends so long it is hard to remember exact details, but I think it is pretty amazing that we are still friends after all this time.  The summer before we started high school Veronica went to stay with her Dad in Alaska.  She did this every summer, so I was used to not having her around all the time.  I remember when she came back she told me that she wanted to go live with her Dad.  I was crushed.  Who doesn’t want to start high school with their best friend?  It was so sad, but I don’t remember being mad at her.  High School was hard without her, but she came to Arkansas for the summers since her Mom still lived here. 

Once college started for both of us, her mom had moved back to Alaska to be closer to her own family.  That meant no more summers with her.  She moved to Oregon for college and I stayed local.  (Maybe we should have coordinated that)  We actually talked less and less in college.  It was becoming harder and harder.  Then my senior year of college happened and Veronica met the man of her dreams.  She called me one day and told me she was moving to Nashville and getting married (to a guy she hadn’t known that long).  I was SHOCKED.  I knew we hadn’t talked as often but I was still shocked.  She told me how much she wanted me to come to her wedding.  I said of course I would come without even thinking twice about it.  For some reason since that day she called me we have been closer than ever.  I went to her wedding in March and she came to my graduation in May.  We have tried really hard to keep our friendship close.

Wedding Rehearsal Picture

Her husband is a wonderful military man and so they have since moved to Colorado and Hawaii.  Michael and I have made visits to both places.  I keep telling her that they need to keep moving to fun places that we can come see them.  Here is the four of us doing what we love…hanging out.

She has since had two kids.  One I have yet to introduce on here.  Let me tell you first how special Schuylia (Sky-Leah) is to me.  She is our niece minus the blood relation.  We skype weekly now that the newest addition has been born, but before that it was almost daily.  Sometimes Shane (her husband) or Michael will come home and just ask how the other is doing just because we talk so much.  Skye knows us as her Aunt and Uncle and that will never change.  I wish sometimes people could hear her talking to me on Skype.  I love it.  I don’t always understand it but I LOVE it.  She is the closest thing we have to a niece and we love it.  So now we have a nephew. 

Let me introduce Hawke Brian….Check out that adorable smile.  Sorry if the resolution isn’t the greatest.  Phone photos.  I get these all the time and they just make me smile.  I had the realization that I won’t ever get to hold him as a little baby the other day.  By the time we get to see him he will be almost 1 (if we get to see him when I want to).  We got to meet Skye at 4 months for our wedding.  I had her and a wedding and I took more time holding her than I did on my wedding.  I am working on Michael to take me to Hawaii late this year (again) just so I can hold him and play with him and kiss him.  His sister just adores him…see… Each time I receive a picture I think more and more about jumping on a plane and going there for a LONG visit.  I went for 2 weeks when Skye was 8 months, which WAS fabulous.  It was just my bestie, my cute niece, and me for 2 weeks.  We didn’t really do a thing.  Ordered take out and just hung out.  We only went to the beach 2 or 3 times the whole 2 weeks.  My husband is the best for letting me go alone!  If you ever want to go visit your best friend in paradise for two weeks just cry.  I asked Michael at the wedding while I was crying because they were having to leave and of course he said yes.  HAHA!!  He was sweet and Veronica’s husband was deployed at the time, so her understood her needing help.  I know everyone wants to see more pictures of two of my favorite kiddos. 

Love this look on his face…and hers.Just chilling in the bumbo Check out those curls!!!You totally woke me upFamily photo time.

Invitations

I love making invitations.  It is fun to come up with an idea and make it pretty.  My mom was hosting a bridal shower recently with her friends and she asked me to make the invite for it.  The young lady’s colors were a plum and green.  I have known her as long as I can remember.  She is older than me but her brother and my brother played baseball together for years.  Super sweet girl.  I was excited to make the invite.  Here is the invitation.  It is hard to tell from the picture but the front colored paper is a light green. 

The other invitation I have been working on was the one for my pregnant friend’s baby shower.  She is doing an owl theme in this little girls room and so I had to make the invite very owl friendly.  I got my inspiration from the decal she is going to use in her room.  Super cute.  I also wanted to incorporate the big sister and the daddy since this shower is a couples/family friendly shower.  It is the second little girl for this couple, so the shower is really all about getting together to hang out. 

More Baby Blocks

I have another friend having a baby soon…I almost can’t believe two of my close friends will have new babies in the next few months.  I am excited to hold and play with new babies. So I made another set of blocks.  For this baby I am hosting a shower, so we will be using these as decoration and then she gets to take them home.  I actually remember to take pictures of all sides of these blocks. 

This is my favorite font to see but it was the MOST difficult.  Lots of detail and easy to mess up.  I tried making this side over time so my hands didn’t start to shake.

KONY 2012

Michael showed me this video last week.  I immediately posted it to Facebook.  It is 29 minutes and I cried through most of it.  I had heard of this problems before of children being taken and force to kill in Africa.  I don’t know where I heard of it the first time, but I am glad someone here in the United States is trying to do something about it.  We have the ability to help.  The more people who know the better.  Get the word out there and watch this film. 

Treadmill

Michael and I recently bought ourselves a treadmill.  We both prefer it over an elliptical.  I never feel like I get a real workout on those, but for me and my bad knee they are supposedly better.  I know some people who swear by their elliptical workout but just not us.  We had an elliptical for awhile and rarely used it.  Then we got a gym membership for a year. 

A few problems we found with the gym.  One, our gym was 20 minutes away from our house.  Our nights were basically shot by going to the gym.  It was a rush, come home eat and go to the gym, which was a 2 hour activity.  When you have a dog at home who is dying to play, it makes that very hard.  We felt like we were neglecting her.  When we first started going to the gym we both ran on the treadmill and lifted weights.  Slowly I didn’t want to lift and I just wanted to run.  Plus we weren’t going very much because we wanted to hang out with Gabby.  Since, we have an elliptical at the house it made me realize it was not worth the $100/month cost. 

We started talking about getting a treadmill and giving the elliptical back to my parents (it was their machine) around Christmas.  My Dad has a bad knee (genetics) and was wanting to use it again, but he kept telling me if we use it that we could keep it.  The truth was I never used it and Michael used it occasionally.  So, we gave it back.  This started Michael on a kick to find the perfect treadmill for us.  We cancelled our gym membership and he got busy researching.  We finally bought one a few weeks ago.  It is AWESOME!!!  Michael gets up early and runs and then I run after he leaves for work or sometimes I run at lunch.  Our cute little dog isn’t neglected.  She gets to play all night and get all of our attention and we both get the workout we want.  Plus the cost of the treadmill is a lot less than the year gym membership. 

We put this treadmill in my office, and so I had to do some rearranging of the office.  It was time to rearrange anyway.  I can’t stand to keep something the same way very long.  I itch to change and move things.  It just makes me feel better.  I didn’t take before pictures, but I took some pictures of my new office.  I love the new layout.  I can’t wait until we build our next house…it will have an exercise room and an office.  (I can dream right?)  Here is what my office looks like now.

I also thought I would share this picture of the map in my office.  I got this idea from my brother.  If you look close you can see pins on the map.  The red pins are places I have been, the black pins are places Michael has been, and the white pins are places we have gone together.  It is silly, but I think it is fun.  Someday I think it would be nice to frame with the pins on the board.   It makes me realize how many places we have been and how many more places we haven’t gotten to see. 

Gabby

Michael and I love our dog, it is very apparent on here.  She is our child.  So today, I want to share some recent Gabby pictures and videos.  She was been very lovey lately and wants to cuddle.  We normally don’t let her sleep with us, mainly because she likes to sleep almost on top of us.  Since she weighs close to 60lbs that just can’t happen.  The last two nights she has been very sweet and cuddly and so she has gotten to sleep with us.  Probably a bad idea, but when we kick her off she pouts and deals with her bed.  A friend sent me this picture via Pinterest.  Gabby really is the first image, but 60lbs of that is a lot.

The weather here has been wonderful lately.  Lots of dog park and water fun.  Gabby went swimming twice last weekend.  The first time we were walking the trail around Lake Fayetteville and Gabby saw the water and with her 15 foot leash she was in that water in NO time.  Once she was in I took off her leash and she swam around and around.  LOVE pure LOVE.  I will have to remember to take her there more often.  When we got home Gabby got a bath to get the lake water off.  She hates her baths, but totally worth it.  On Sunday we took her to the dog park.  After the park we were walking with Michael’s cousin and the puppy they were dog sitting for this weekend and they wanted to take her to the pond close by.  Michael and I didn’t want to let Gabby swim since she just got a bath, but she whined and cried watching the other dog get in the water.  So, I being the weakest link I unhooked her and boy was she ever happy.  She bolted straight into that lake!!  Much love for my heart!  Here is a video from the pond visit.

Gabby swimming

Now here are come random Gabby photos from recent adventure or at home (I take pictures of her daily):

This is her chair…I am sleeping Dad, why are you taking pictures of me.This is the face I love the most.On my good pillows.  This is the place I find her the most. I keep a blanket on the bed to help keep dog hair off my comforter and this is what she does.  She loves to play cards.Proof of her snuggling.Sometimes I find her hiding in my car…don’t leave the car door open or she expects to get to come along.