Bringin' Cupcake Home

Lindsey's Dress Cupcake!

This past weekend, Lindsey, Kati and I went to Little Rock to stay with our friend Jeane and go wedding dress shopping. Lindsey is getting married July 3rd...so it's fun doing all this shopping together!! While in Little Rock we went to Proposals, then to Brinkley to Lowe's, and then final stop Ashley's in Sherwood on the way back. I found two dresses I really liked at Proposals....and found nothing at Lowe's. I was kinda dissappointed. But, really the help there wasn't great. It was OK, but NOT great. I was so tired by the time we got to Ashley's, I didn't really look too hard. Lindsey ended up trying on a dress at Ashley's she had really liked at another place. After putting it on again, she decided that it was THE dress. It looks GREAT on her. We named it "cupcake." We carried her out as you can see.....YAY LINDSEY! I can't wait to find my dress! The search continues!

After dress shopping we celebrated with dinner at Cantina Laredo and then dessert at Ciao Baci. The dessert was S'Mores...and it was AWESOME!

S'Mores at Ciao Baci!
this is what a day of dress shopping does to you.

A year of blogging...and a year to be thankful for!

I have hit my year anniversary (or close to it) on blogging. When I started, I had no idea what I would write about...but apparently I either have more going on than I thought or I'm really good at talking about a whole lot of nothing.

I'll say that I must have lots of stuff going on. :)

There have been many big things happen in my life since this time last year. So, I think this is as good as an opportunity to say all the things I am thankful for this year!

I'm thankful for God's love, my family, my future husband, bryan's family, my friends, my health, a niece that I am SO in love with, the holiday season, my country, my job, Bruce returning from Iraq, a wedding to look forward to....I could go on. It's just amazing.

It's sometimes hard for me to understand how I ended up with such a wonderful life, with so many people to love, so many people that love me, and all of these material comforts...and more THINGS than I will ever need when there are so many people who will go with out. I'm guilty of doing nothing. I'm definitely guilty of "wanting more." But, my goal this holiday season is to be content, grateful, humbled, giving, patient and kind. My other goal is to make a difference...even if it's something small. They say every little bit helps. Here I go.

Engagement Party

Lindsey and Kati threw Bryan and I a wonderful engagement party. We had SO much fun. We got to see lot's of our friends, and spend an evening eating and visiting. Johnny made us a special "Love CD" for our engagement party....and he played it for us later in the evening. It was great. It was SO fun having so many of our favorite people in one place. Thanks to everyone who came!! We love you.

Meet the Flinstones....

THE GROUP!

Wilma and Barney! :)

My "husband" Fred trying to fix my bracelet. We just can't have anything nice.

The Flinstones were a hit. It's fun dressing up as a group, it makes more "impact." We went to two friends' houses to their Halloween parties and had a great time. While we were driving we were scheming for next year. Since Bryan and I will be getting married smack in the middle of October, we will have to make our costumes in advance next year.

Halloween Tradition

Halloween 2006 - Wizard of Oz Line-up

Bryan and I 2006

Halloween 2007 - Oompa Loompa AKA Celebrities for the Night

Kati oompa loompa...her wig's a little crooked.

Stay tuned for Halloween 2008, we'll try not to disappoint. :)

Poor Baki

Baki in the cone.

So last wednesday night after work Bryan and I met at fayetteville town center to check it out for the reception. I tried to convince bryan to go eat dinner but...noooo he had to get home to run (boo). :) So, I treated myself to some chik-fil-a and headed home. Mom was out of town, so I knew I had to get home and take care of my pup. I decided to wait until I got home to eat it....so I wouldn't make a mess in my clean car. I was starving.

Until I walked into my house.

I walk into the house and smell this TERRIBLE smell. Baki stays in a crate in the kitchen when we are not home....well, I knew what had happened...it has happened twice before. He ate something and got sick in his crate. Normally, when I let the garage door up he starts barking to make sure I don't forget to let him out (like I could). Well, absolutely no noise was coming out of him...so I knew it had to be something bad. I'll let you use your imagination on what the inside of his crate looked like. So, I grabbed a wal-mart bag and used it to pick him up with, because he was covered in....poop. I carried him outside and noticed he was having trouble walking, and then I noticed that his footprints were leaving blood marks. So, I grabbed him up again and took him to my bathroom and washed him off. His legs/feet/nose/etc were ALL bleeding. So I called Bryan, my vet, and then the emergency vet clinic. I washed him off, wrapped him in a sheet...and put him in my car. My clean car. But I had to, he was so sick and shaking...I felt terrible. No telling how long he sat in his carrier like that.

Anyway, took him to the emergency clinic and they said he had an allergic reaction to something and had a very severe case of dermatitis. In fact, the worse case of it they had ever seen. I love feeling like a good dog owner. He had been scratching some but I had looked him over and he seemed fine. Apparently with a black dog it's hard to tell, and apparently this allergic reaction happened pretty quickly. He basically itched and chewed himself raw, and then got sick all over the place. The vet put it like this "If I was itching that bad, I would probably use the bathroom all over myself too." Great. I'm feeling better and better about being a responsible dog owner. They had to shave all four of his legs, his entire back end, and his nose. He looks like a mess.

We left the emergency clinic with:

Antiboitic

Steriod

Diarrhea medicine

allergy medicine

topical ointment

topical spray

Buster Collar aka Elizabethian Collar aka Cone

$402.50 bill

We aren't exactly sure what caused it, I went to my regular vet on friday and added fish oil and special shampoo to his collection of other stuff I am shoving down him twice a day. They said it could have been a culmination of things....I won't go into all that.

It was the first time I have ever let chik-fil-a go to waste. :)

On a good note, he's on the mend. I have had to keep him in small confined areas and have been trapping him at night beside my bed. Last night I woke up to paws on the edge of my bed and him nudging me with his cone. He wanted on the bed. He was shivering, so I assumed he was cold, I put a sheet over my bed, and then put his blanket down and let him sleep beside me. He's an excellent heater....and he didn't budge for the rest of the night. He's on my bed right now...wearing his cone, laying on a pile of sheets and towels. Poor guy.

What I normally look like:

Hadleigh's First Trip

Photo shoot

smiling! :)
Poppy and Hadleigh checking each other out!

Hadleigh and Elizabeth came to stay at my mom's friday night while Joe went to my grandma's to go hunting. So, mom and I got to see little Hadleigh all weekend. Mainly we fought over who had been holding her longer, and whose turn it was! :) All in good fun though. Kristy brought Poppy over to meet Hadleigh...it was funny to see them together because you don't realize how different babies are until they are side by side! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from Hadleigh's first trip to Grandma's.....