Summer Reads

So I am a little behind on reading my favorite author's (Sophie Kinsella) books, but guess what was sitting on my door step this morning...

 Photos from http://www.amazon.com/

Time for me to catch up because she has another book in the Shopaholic series coming out in a little over a month.  Yes she wrote Confessions of a Shopaholic and the book was way better than the movie!

And for a little southern fun...

Photo from http://www.amazon.com/

All of these will be fun, easy beach reads that I can bring along on my girls' getaway next month!

The BIG 80!!

Happy 80th Birthday to my Maw Maw!! She is one of the craziest, funniest, most honest, and strongest slot machine playing, down home cooking, dancing queen, Chattanooga Choo Choo singing old ladies you will ever meet. If you don't know her or have never eaten her food you are missing out!!   Maw Maw has requested a trip to the casino for her 80th, so if she is feeling strong enough most of her children and grand children that are of age will head on over to Shreveport to have a fun little time at the casino Friday night.  We will celebrate with cake on Saturday. 

This 80 year old can still get down!

MawMaw has 2 birthdays.  The doctor that delivered her put her birthday as the 21st on her birth certificate, but her mom (Blue Mama) always told her she was born on the 22nd.  I think I would trust the person that went through the pain and delivery to know when she had me. 


On a side note, praise the Lord because she is almost done with her radiation treatments for her lung cancer...2 days to go!!

Happy Birthday Maw Maw!!

Shout Out to the Housesitter

While Matt and I were in Little Rock, our home and pets were lovingly cared for by our FABULOUS house/petsitter my little sister.  Haley has a blog of her own you should check her out here.  I stole both of these pics off her blog, but this is what she and the pups did while we were away.

Buddy followed Haley everywhere and wanted her to be in his sight 24/7. 

Belle pouted in her chair and didn't eat for a few days.  She won't eat when I leave her with Matt, so that was normal. 

  I think they both enjoyed their time with their Weezie!  Thanks for taking care of your niece and nephew and not burning the house down!

Little Rock-Long Post

Matt and I recently took a 2 day trip to Little Rock.  I had never been there before and it is only about a 4 hour drive from our house, so we hoped in the car and went.  Matt went a month or 2 ago with his dad and they explored the city and watched a Travelers game.  Matt came back from that trip with Little Rock added to his places I would like to move list.  Sadly I only took about 2 pictures during the trip and both of them were of ducks!  We got to Little Rock on a Monday afternoon around 5 checked into our hotel and headed out to eat and explore.  We had dinner at a great little restaurant called Loca Luna.  This place has been on Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels and if she says it's good then it must be, so we checked it out.  Matt and I both really enjoyed the meal. 

Tuesday we started our day off by having lunch at the award winning Whole Hog Cafe. 

Photo courtesy of http://www.wholehogcafe.com/

You walk into this BBQ restaurant and all you see are trophies and awards everywhere, so you know it has to be good.  We don't usually eat BBQ when we aren't in our little town of Minden because that is one of the only things the town has and you can get tired of it rather quickly.  The food was so good!  They have about 6 different BBQ sauces to choose from, so at first it is kinda like an experiment to see which one you like.  If you are ever in Little Rock you must eat here!

Isn't this a true southerner's meal!!

Photo courtesy of http://www.wholehogcafe.com/

Then we went to the River Market and walked around.  There were many vendors with fresh produce and arts and crafts. 

Photo courtesy of http://www.rivermarket.info/

The thing I enjoyed the most at the River Market was a store called Ten Thousand Villages.  We also visited the old capital which is now a museum and the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks. 

Photo courtesy of http://www.peabodylittlerock.com/

We then explored more of the shopping in Little Rock and visited places like Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and a mall that had a Dillards in it that was like one I had never seen before.  Half of Dillards was on one end of the mall and the other half was on the other end.  Dillards is headquartered in Little Rock for those of you that didn't know that. 

We also drove around and looked at some houses and even drove to a surrounding town called Maumelle to check out the houses there. We ended the day by going to a tapas restaurant called RUMBA.  We didn't know when we planned on going there, but Tuesday is half price tapas night.  The food was good there and the atmosphere was a little different, but we would go back if given the opportunity. 

I did tell Matt that I could probably live in or right around Little Rock in the next few years...but we will see where the Lord takes us!

Is It Just Me...

I saw this on a friend's blog and I definitely have these thoughts too, so I thought I would share it with my 2 faithful readers!  Funny Things and situations that I think about:

• There is a great need for a sarcasm font!
• I wish my GPS had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.  I also wish it had a ghetto voice that would warn me if I got too close to a bad part of town.
• More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.  Sometimes I don't even wait for them to finish because my story is just that good!
• Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning around and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like look in a store window or look at your cell.
• Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.
• How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
• I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
• The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text. (I do not condone texting and driving, and I usually only do it when I am stopped because I'm not very good at it.)
• Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".
• I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
• Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
• How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
• Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. My last job selling insurance was the worst.  Can you imagine giving and taking VIN numbers over the phone all day?  "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm. ..Goonies and P as in .....poodle" 
• While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart. (Ok I have not done this one, but it made me laugh!)
• Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. 
• Shirts get dirty. Underwear get dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever or at least for about 3 days before washing them...you know you do it too!!
• Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that they always wanted. 552 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
• Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?  Did I really used to dress like that!!?!
• Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem.... 
• You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
• I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
• "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.
• I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room.'
• I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
• I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste!
• I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
• Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
• I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
• Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.
• Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...
• I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
• I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

Am I crazy or does anyone else think of things like these?  What are you crazy thoughts?

Paint Job

We did our first real update on the house last week.  We painted the guest bedroom which is also my sewing/craft room.  We painted it rye grass green.  I have had the bedding for the room for about a month. I wanted something bright and cheerful because we have picked out darker colors for the master bedroom and office/man cave.

This is before.  Taping is for the birds!!

This is after.

This is the new bedding and it looks like someone has already claimed the bed. 

Now I get the fun job of putting all the furniture and stuff back into the room.  I also need to find some wall decor for this room. Any suggestions?  Hopefully I will have a few more updates to show you soon and maybe even some pictures of the nieces and nephews enjoying the pool!

Leading up to the BIG Day

Leading up to our big day Matt and I took engagement and bridal pictures with our photographer Ross Frazier.  The day we took our engagement pictures it rained about 30 minutes before our session, but we had already rescheduled once and I was determined we would be taking them that day.  The day I took my bridals it was a pretty day until we go to our last location it started pouring.  We sent my sister to the car for umbrellas right at the perfect time.  My mom was stressing because I was going to ruin my dress, but it just repelled the water.  The slide show is just a few of my favorites. 

All of these photos are by Ross Frazier

Home Sweet Home

Matt and I purchased a home at the end of last summer. We looked at numerous homes in the Shreveport/Bossier area, but could not find a place that felt like home.  Growing up I was always a country girl, and my neighbors were always family literally they were my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and an old couple we adopted as our grandparents. We usually had to drive or ride the 4 wheeler to our neighbors' houses because they didn't live so close you could walk out the door and hold a conversation with them.  That is until Matt and I moved to Bossier and lived in an apartment.  Now that is a big eye opener.  We knew no one in the apartment complex and really didn't care to.  I finally met our next door neighbor about a month before we moved out, but I still never adjusted to living so close to my neighors.  I think what really kicked us into house hunting was the issue of waking up to no water 3 times in a month unannounced while we were in the apartment. 

This is our kitchen.

We couldn't have asked for a better realtor than Amber Floyd, and I would (and have) suggest her to anyone moving to Northwest Louisiana.  Amber really made the home buying process as entertaining and painless as possible.  She showed us numerous properties and was very patient with us. 

We have a very open floor plan.  This is the living room which is open to the kitchen and the dining room is right behind the fireplace. 

After looking for about a month, we found our home.  Our biggest concern was both of our commutes for work would be from Minden to Bossier or about 30 minutes per trip.  Once we saw the home and weighed our options we were sold.  We are about 5 minutes away from my in-laws and 35 minutes from my parents and 4 out of 5 of my siblings.

This is the back of the house.  You can see what's inside this huge room in the next picture!

We have not really done much to the house yet.  We will be painting and fixing a few things over the next few months. The pictures in this post are all from the realtor's online listing, so none of the furniture is ours.

Our indoor swimming pool which I can't wait to get ready for summer next week!

We have met most of our new neighbors.  We live caddy corner to a Coca-Cola distributing plant.  A few weeks after we moved in, we were welcomed to the neighborhood with a 6 pack of glass bottled cokes and tickets to the museum in town by our across the street neighbors who own the plant.  They are really sweet Matt (his mom and her friend) has actually been over and had a coke with the elderly couple and was given a tour of the plant.  I was at work and didn't get to enjoy that, but they were nice enough to let us take some of our engagement pictures with one of their old coke trucks. 

Playing Catch Up!

Wow...it has been over a year and one exciting year it has been!  Since my last post we:

• Bought a house

This is the side of the house.  It is what faces the road, but isn't our front door. 
• I got my license to sell insurance and used it for a while, but had an amazing job offer I couldn't pass up.
• Got married

www.rossfrazier.com

• 
  
  Honeymooned in Vegas

• 
  
  Joined the Jr. Service League
• 
  
  Became co-advisor for my sorority at Louisiana Tech
• 
  
  Added a new fur baby to the family (not really by choice)

This is Buddy the poodle mix. This is before he visited the groomer.

Most of these I will elaborate on in their own posts.  We have done a ton more things, but these were the biggest and most memorable.