Bachelorette Party!

This past weekend was my bachelorette party/girls weekend. And all I can say is: I have THE BEST FRIENDS. I had SO much fun, and I was so thankful for most of my girls being able to make it. A couple were not able....but they were thought of and in a few cases...sang too via voice mail. hee hee.
A run down of the weekend:

- Brandi and I arrived around 9:0opm Thursday night, and then Mariellen got me hooked on the stupidest show "One Tree Hill" and so now I am going to start watching it.... :)
Beginning our journey to Nashville (that's the Plumberville post office in the background!)
- Lindsey, Kati and Jeane arrived at 2:00am Friday morning, I was dreaming about them getting there and was a little disoriented when they arrived (Jeane was also thinking stop signs were people by this point...so we were all a little nuts)
- Sidney-pup about ate all of them alive for busting in her house at 2:00am and startling her.
- We ate lunch in downtown Murfreesboro and shopped Friday afternoon (I bought a dress that was on sale that I had tried on in April when I was there..that was STILL there just waiting on me..it was a sign!)
- We went to Arrington Vineyard in Arrington...we had a wonderful picnic...ate tons of cheese and dips....and did a wine tasting..YUM!
Group picture at the winery!
Picnic'ing at Arrington!
-We had dance party to old schools tunes at Mariellen's house afterwards...complete with frozen pizza's, a "cupcake cake" in the shape of a stilletto and more snacks.
-Saturday morning we headed to Nashville, ate lunch and shopped around Green Hills area
-We checked into our hotel in downtown Nashville, got ready in our hats (Mariellen's idea) and headed to dinner at Lime, it was awesome!
The girls before we left the hotel!
Me and my sweet Kati
Group picture at Lime (Mariellen, Lindsey, Kati, Myself, Brandi and Jeane)

-Being out in downtown nashville wearing a "bachelorette" sash elicits a lot of marital advice....
-One man thought my sash said "Barracuda" HAHA
-I was dragged by a crazy woman to a stage where she insisted on having the band play me a song...and she SWORE she new the lead singer. I'm not convinced she knew where she was, let alone the lead singer. Needless to say, no song was ever played, and she wasted about $40 dollars (she also said that the song we MUST request was "sweet home alabama" because that's what ALL bachelorette's wanted to hear...... We were all CRACKING up!)
-Mariellen, Brandi and I karaoked "Here for a good time" by Lady Antebellum...I can't sing, so I just held the microphone WAY away from my face and let Mariellen and Brandi do the work....That's our new song...right Mari? :)
-My stomach was sore on Sunday driving home from LAUGHING all weekend. I love that feeling!
-My friends would not let me pay for a thing all weekend, and made me feel so special. They were too sweet and it is seriously one of my favorite weekends ever!!!!
-I kept looking around all weekend, because it was SO strange to have so many of my VERY favorite people in the same place
-I also kept thinking I just could NOT believe that it was MY bachelorette party! MINE! :) And that is was finally here. Crazy.
-Can we go back and do the weekend ALL over again...PLEASE!?!?!?!?!


Mariellen and I at Legends (scene of the crazy lady)


Jeane and Mariellen


Lindsey and Kati

What happens when you stay at work late!

Kati and I assisted Carmen in taking pictures of everything at work to make picture cards to be used for PECS or visual schedules with our sweet kids. It's going to be very handy, and hang on the wall in the gym for all to use. So after an hour or two of picture taking...pictures like the following started happening:

The caption for this picture is "hug" it should be "Heimlich maneuver" because that's what it looks like.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's one tired little OT in the ball pit!

We can call this one "crash" and in case you can't tell...that's me upside in the ball pit. It feels great in there...no wonder the kids like it.

My brother's wedding!

Hadleigh and her mommy!

Me playing with my new camera with the wedding bands

Hadleigh walking down the aisle with her grandmother's

The Love Family

Mom and Joe

Bryan and myself after the wedding

Parents of the bride and groom

We went to Fort Walton beach in July for Joe and Elizabeth's wedding. We had a nice time relaxing on the beach, eating seafood and just hanging out. Some big storm clouds rolled in the day of the wedding, however the rain held off until after the wedding and pictures were complete. Elizabeth was a BEAUTIFUL bride and Joe was a handsome groom.....and of course Hadleigh looked like the doll that she is! :) I am so excited to have my first official SISTER! Elizabeth welcome to the family, I'm glad to have a sister finally! :) (in October I will have another sister-in-law also named Elizabeth...two wonderful sister-in-laws...yippee!)

Birthday

Why I like being 26!

1. Another year older, another year wiser.
2. 26 years is long enough to make enough friends and have enough family that I was on the phone at every single break I had today because someone was calling/texting me!
3. I am thankful to be marrying a man this year that makes a big deal out of birthdays and all holidays. He's one of the most thoughtful and giving people I have ever met.
4. I have a career that I love, and a job I look forward to going to. I know that not everyone can say that.
5. Birthday cards. I love birthday cards. (the presents aren't too bad either)
6. At work we threw a party for a kiddo who shares my birthday with me and she said it was the best party ever. Yay!
7. Cake
8. I get to know me a little more every year...and I think I'm pretty cool! :)
9. My niece was standing and smiling at my door when I got home from work. Being old enough to spoil a niece and nephew is awesome!
10. I got a new big fancy camera. So watch world I will be photographing you.
11. My brother and I say "hoppy (insert holiday here)" everything. So today he text me "hoppy birthday" goes with "Hoppy Easter", and so forth...makes me laugh.


Because all posts need a picture.

Cancun

We went to Lindsey and Bryan's wedding in Cancun over the Fourth of July weekend. We had lots of fun and enjoyed hanging out with lots of our friends at once!

from the balcony in our room
Instead of waiting for us to pose, Johnny took some candid shots, funny stuff.
Foggy camera lens....:)
the girls and BRIDE!!! :)
Bryan jumping in on our picture.
The handsome groom and beautiful bride!!!
Here comes the bride!
Bridesmaids!

I love running. My knees hate running.

Maybe love is a strong word. But I do enjoy it when it's not 90 degrees. Anyway, I typically go to bed at 10:00pm on the dot. But when you hype yourself up with a run at 8:00 at night...it keeps you up a bit longer than usual. We have to run that late or we would be passed out from the heat, and that wouldn't be good.

The training schedule is going.....this is what we did this week:

Sunday 3.5 miles
Monday rest
Tuesday 6 miles (I was DELIRIOUS)
Wednesday 2 miles
Thursday 3 miles (it was suppose to be 4...but we were exhausted)

The good thing about all this running is it really is very stress relieving. I think it's stress relieving because when I get done I am too tired to care about anything that might be bothering me. :)

Back to my opening line...my knees...grrrr. I have figured out with a combo of stretching, icing afterwards, and some ibuprofens I can carry on fine. It's just annoying. But it could be worse. Now I'm tired! Goodnight! :)

Some favorites

I took a few pictures for Lindsey and Bryan last night. She has a game plan for these...so I won't give it away...but wanted to share a few of them. I love taking pictures, and after I take some...makes me want to do it more often! (doesn't hurt that they are so cute)